Brazilian soccer legend Marta just made her name impossible to forget

One of the best pro players ever, men or women, here’s how Marta just put a cherry on top of a remarkable career

It’s been less than 48 hours since the time of this report since one of the greatest soccer players to ever grace a professional field had their career come to a close on the highest of highs.

That player would be Marta, the Brazilian phenom who has been not just one of the best female players on the planet for nearly two decades but an iconic trailblazer for the advancement of women in sport.

On Sunday, Marta, 38, whose full name is Marta Viera da Silva, won the NWSL championship after leading the Orlando Pride to a 1-0 win over the Washington Spirit.

It put the final touches on a career that spanned close to 25 years, three countries, and six FIFA Player of the Year awards. She’s been a mainstay in the growth of American soccer since 2017 with the Orlando Pride, but actually, you can date her roots in growing the sport in North America to 2009, when she joined the Los Angeles Sol of Women’s Professional Soccer.

And then in 2010, she joined the Gold Pride in during the 2009 and 2010 seasons, scoring a ridiculous 29 goals in 43 games, putting the upstart women’s league on world notice.

In August, following a run to the finals of the Gold Medal match in the Summer Games in Paris, Marta announced her retirement from the international game in which she’s played over 204 games and scored 119 goals and has the record for the most goals in a World Cup (17) for men or women. When you think of all the names that have graced a Brazilian roster on both sides, it’s pretty impressive.

But perhaps the greatest thing about Marta is not her performances on the field, but the pride she’s always carried in playing for Brazil — a feat she completed for both club and country — but being an ambassador and role model for aspiring young female soccer players everywhere.

Marta will long be remembered for the tear-filled emotional speeches she’s repeatedly given over the years imploring young girls to never give up on their dreams and to see her living out her own as an example to follow. After winning one of her six World Player titles in 2016, an emotional Marta, in her native Portuguese said the following:

“I want all women to also be able to see a promising future where it isn’t targeted just at football [soccer] or sport, but at any activity, because what we ar striving for every day, and for what God intended for us is to try to make the world a better place for everyone.”

Even Alex Morgan, widely regarded as one of the best players to ever compete for the U.S. women’s national team lauded Marta as “one of the best players in the world.”

The two briefly played together in 2015 for the Western New York Flash in the now-defunct Women’s Professional Soccer and again with the Orlando Pride, in addition to going up against each other on a number of occasions on the international stage.

“For over a couple of decades, she has been dominant, and I think that’s really special,” Morgan said in an interview with the NWSL and Amazon Prime Video. “She’s absolutely one of the greats.”