50 Fun Facts About Marta

In which position does Marta primarily play?

She began as a classic number 10 before moving to more advanced roles, and is Brazil's all-time top scorer with 122 goals.

How many times has Marta been named FIFA World Player of the Year?

She won five in a row from 2006 to 2010, then a sixth in 2018.

Marta holds the record for most career goals at the Women's World Cup. How many?

Her 17th, a penalty against Italy in 2019, made her the outright leading scorer at the World Cup, male or female.

Which US club did Marta join in 2017?

She joined on a free transfer from Rosengård and became the first player to reach 100 appearances for the club in 2023.

Pelé gave Marta which nickname?

In Brazil she is simply 'Rainha', the Queen.

What is Marta's nickname in Brazil?

It means 'Queen'.

Marta was born in Dois Riachos in which Brazilian state?

She learned the game in the streets with boys and left home at 14 to turn professional.

Marta was discovered at the age of 14 by which Brazilian coach?

Her first professional club, Vasco da Gama, folded two years after she joined in 2000.

Marta's first European club, which she joined in 2004 and won the UEFA Women's Cup with that season, was in which country?

Umeå IK beat Frankfurt 8–0 on aggregate in the final, with Marta scoring three across the two legs.

How many Swedish league championships did Marta win across her spells at Umeå, Tyresö and Rosengård?

Four came with Umeå in a row from 2005 to 2008, then one with Tyresö in 2012 and two with Rosengård.

During a Swedish Cup final in 2005 Marta punched an opponent and minutes later suffered what injury from an elbow?

Malin Nykvist elbowed her after she struck Helen Fagerström; Marta later apologised.

At the 2007 Women's World Cup Marta won both the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot. Who beat Brazil in the final?

She had a penalty saved midway through the second half that would have levelled the 2–0 defeat.

How many goals did Marta score at the 2007 World Cup to win the Golden Boot?

Two came in the 4–0 semi-final rout of the United States.

After scoring twice to win the 2007 Pan American Games final at the Maracanã, Marta became the first woman honoured how at the stadium?

Brazil beat the US under-20s in front of 68,000 that day.

Marta has won Olympic silver medals at three Games. Which?

The United States beat Brazil in all three finals.

Marta was the first footballer of any gender to score at how many World Cups?

A penalty against Australia at France 2019 did it; days earlier no man had managed it either.

Marta became the first player to score at five consecutive Olympics with two goals against which team in 2021?

Brazil won 5–0 but went out on penalties to Canada in the quarter-finals.

In her viral 2019 World Cup interview after Brazil's exit, Marta urged Brazilian girls to do what?

She pleaded with them to continue the legacy of ageing legends like herself, Formiga and Cristiane.

Which team eliminated Brazil in the 2019 World Cup round of 16, prompting that interview?

The hosts won 2–1 in Le Havre.

Marta was sent off in her final Olympic group game in 2024 for accidentally kicking which Spanish player in the head?

She served a two-match ban and returned for the final, a 1–0 loss to the United States.

After retiring from international football following the 2024 Olympics, Marta returned in 2025 to help Brazil win which tournament?

She scored a late equaliser in the final and played her part in the penalty shootout.

Marta joined the inaugural Women's Professional Soccer season in 2009 with which club, and was named league MVP?

The Sol lost the final to Sky Blue FC and folded that winter, and she was picked first in the dispersal draft.

Marta won her first WPS championship in 2010 with which Bay Area club, again as league MVP?

She scored 19 goals in 24 games; the club folded that November.

Marta's third WPS club in three years, with which she won the 2011 title on penalties, was which expansion team?

It earned her a third straight WPS Golden Boot; the league then cancelled its 2012 season.

During two winter loans to Santos, Marta helped the club win which South American club competition in 2009?

She scored in that final and twice in the Copa do Brasil final the same season.

Marta's reported salary of about $400,000 a season at Tyresö FF from 2012 was paid by whom?

The club later collapsed financially and withdrew from the 2014 season, making all its players free agents.

Marta scored twice in the 2014 UEFA Women's Champions League final, but Tyresö lost 4–3 to which German club?

She scored against Wolfsburg again the following season for Rosengård, only to go out on away goals.

Marta won her first NWSL title in 2024 when the Pride beat which team 1–0 in the championship game?

Orlando also won the NWSL Shield that season and Marta made the Best XI.

What injury sidelined Marta for the whole of the 2022 NWSL season?

It happened in the second game of the Challenge Cup, weeks after she was named club captain.

Marta gained citizenship of which second country in March 2017?

Having already played for Brazil, it did not make her eligible for its national team; she got a US green card in 2021.

As of 2025, how many goals had Marta scored for Brazil, a national record?

They came in 213 appearances, and she is fluent in four languages after careers in Sweden and the US.

In 2024 FIFA created an award named after Marta, given for what?

She won the inaugural FIFA Marta Award herself.

Marta was one of six ambassadors for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil alongside Ronaldo, Bebeto and which coach?

Amarildo and Carlos Alberto Torres completed the group.

At the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Marta helped do what?

Brazil's women reached the semi-finals at those Games before losing to Sweden on penalties.

In 2018 Marta became the first person from Latin America appointed to which United Nations role?

A year later the Secretary-General also made her a Sustainable Development Goals advocate.

What is the name of the sportswear brand Marta launched in 2023, donating royalties to organisations promoting female leadership in football?

LATAM Airlines had already made her its 'Global Leader of Diversity and Inclusion' in 2022.

A 2005 SVT documentary about her was titled Marta – Pelés kusin. What does Pelés kusin mean?

She later appeared in SVT's 2013 series The Other Sport.

Marta married which club teammate in Florida in January 2026?

An earlier engagement to teammate Toni Pressley had been called off.

At the 2011 World Cup Marta scored both Brazil goals in a quarter-final lost on penalties to which team, drawing level with Birgit Prinz on 14 tournament goals?

Abby Wambach's stoppage-time header forced the shootout in one of the tournament's most famous games.

Marta became the Women's World Cup's all-time top scorer at the 2015 tournament with her 15th goal against which team?

It was the same opponent she had scored her first World Cup goal against, from the penalty spot, in 2003.

Marta's stronger foot, which she cuts inside to shoot with from the wing, is which?

She began as a classic number 10 before moving to more advanced roles.

Sports Illustrated ranked Marta where on its list of the top 20 female athletes of the 2000s?

She had just won five straight FIFA World Player awards when the decade closed.

Marta started her professional career in 2000 at which Brazilian club, which folded two years later?

She then played two seasons for Santa Cruz, a small club in Minas Gerais, before leaving for Umeå IK in Sweden.

At which tournament did Marta make her Brazil debut, scoring six goals and winning the Silver Ball?

Her first senior international goal came at the 2003 Copa América, which Brazil won.

Umeå IK won the 2004 UEFA Women's Cup final by what aggregate score, with Marta scoring three goals?

The victims were Frankfurt; Marta scored 22 league goals that season, tied with teammate Laura Kalmari.

How many goals did Marta score at the 2010 Copa América to lead Brazil to the title?

She also took the tournament's Golden Boot; her 2008 Olympic silver was her third straight runners-up medal in a major event.

How many languages is Marta fluent in?

Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and English; she left her family at 14 to pursue football and her father had left when she was a baby.

Marta became the first Orlando Pride player to reach 100 appearances in 2023 against whom?

The Pride won 1–0; she had also scored 19 goals in all 24 games for FC Gold Pride in 2010.

Which two players were Orlando Pride's first-ever signings, from Portland Thorns in 2015?

The Pride gave up their top picks in the expansion draft; they began play in 2016 as the NWSL's tenth team.

Which NFL owners bought Orlando City and the Pride from Flávio Augusto da Silva in 2021?

The Wilfs own the Minnesota Vikings; the Pride won their first trophies, the NWSL Shield and Championship, in 2024.