News Information and Media Site: Women’s World Cup Briefing: Marta’s Exit

Aug. 2, 2023, 11:00 a.m. Eastern time

Marta after being substituted in the match against Jamaica.William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Tariq Panja

If Pelé was O Rei, the King, then Marta is undisputably A Rainha, the Queen.

New stars have emerged in the years since she was first recognized as the gold standard in women's soccer, and perhaps even better players, too. But few players will have left the cultural mark that Marta has on soccer, in Brazil and beyond, since she first donned her country's canary yellow jersey more than two decades ago.

Now her journey is coming to a close. Marta, 37, has needed no reminders of that in recent weeks. She understood this week that every high-stakes game she played at the Women's World Cup, starting with Wednesday's final group game against Jamaica, might be her last. It turned out that it was.

A day before the game, Marta tried to suggest to a room mostly full of journalists from her home country, many of them women, that she had not even considered that eventuality. Then I reminded her of it.

I have been writing about Marta for 20 years, in Brazil and Europe and many places in between, and told her that for much of that time she was the rare female athlete whose name registered anywhere in the world. Did she understand the scale of that legacy? She took a deep breath. And then the words and the tears came tumbling out.

Marta spoke about how she was not able to have a female idol when she first started out in soccer, because the game, at least the women's version, was never visible in Brazil. She spoke about how she and the sport's other pioneers could have stopped because of the numerous roadblocks placed in front of them, and about the pleasure she gets now when parents stop her in the street to tell her how she is a role model for their daughters.

"Twenty years ago, nobody knew who Marta was at my first World Cup," she said. "Twenty years later, we have become a reference for many women all over the world, not only in football. We see many women journalists here today, and we didn't see that before, so we have opened doors for equality.

"I hope I answered your question," she concluded, "after you made me cry."

By the time she had finished speaking, she was not the only one in the room wiping away tears.

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William West/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

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With a draw, Jamaica pushed into the round of 16 by eliminating Brazil in a game that may have been the last for Marta on the international stage.

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