No empty seat in the stadiums. The crowd chanting in full voice. The whole country behind the team. It looked like a dream was coming true for the Brazilian female players that were playing for the Seleção (yes, the women’s team is also known as the Seleção – the Seleção feminina, or the ‘female’ Seleção) during Rio 2016.
As Neymar’s team was not doing well in the first phase of the Olympic tournament, and as Marta’s team was flying, playing a nice futebol-arte style and scoring goals, all eyes turned to them. In the past Marta’s team had won the Silver Medal at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2012, so this would be the perfect chance for the team to achieve their golden dream.
In the first match of the knockout phase, however, the female Seleção nearly missed out. They could not pass through the defensive efforts of the Matildas (the Australian women's team) and in the penalty shootout they were nearly eliminated, after the team’s captain missed a penalty. But Barbara, the team’s goalkeeper, made some amazing saves and put the team on the semi-final route.
Unfortunately, this time the female Seleção could not win another penalty shootout against Sweden. Afterwards they went to the Bronze Medal play-off where, without any enthusiasm, they lost to Canada and finished the Rio Olympic tournament in the 4th place.
After this last match, the team’s captain pleaded to the whole country: “Please do not stop supporting women’s football”.
As she had experienced herself, the captain could envisage that after the Olympic fever was gone the gender status quo within the Brazilian football realm would come back to its routine. Women’s football would be left in the margins and everything – from funding to media attention, to clubs support, to audiences — would again be turned towards men’s football.
Marta, the team’s captain, knew what she was talking about when she made that appeal. She knew that once again she had to take the rare opportunity to talk in front of the entire country to demand their support towards female football.
Marta was conscious that girls and young women still face prejudice and several hurdles when trying to enter Brazilian football fields. From local parks to schools and within the youth system, the barriers are still enormous.
Despite her personal success and amazing international achievements, Marta has suffered her entire life because of her passion for playing a sport that was supposedly not meant to be played by human beings who were born with vaginas. As Brazilians learn before they can even walk — given the gender constructs that have historically surrounded its practice — football is deemed as male terrain.
Marta has jumped many gender obstacles in her footballing journey which, of course, a man would never face. That’s why her trajectory is so exceptional. That’s why a spectator could raise a banner during the Rio 2007 Pan-American Games stating: “Who cares about Pelé when you can cheer on Marta!?”.
That’s why we can say that Marta is better than Pelé. This is of course a feminist statement but is also supported by Marta’s own statistics.
Marta Vieira da Silva has a humble origin. She was born in Alagoas, a poor state in Brazil’s northeast. Her rise to the top of women’s football was fast. After attracting attention while playing for a local club’s (CSA) youth team, she started as a professional at Vasco da Gama, a major club in Rio de Janeiro, when she was only 14 years old.
After a few years, she transferred to play in Sweden for Umeà IK where she started to show her talent to the football world. She played for European and US clubs, and also had some spells with Brazilian clubs in one of the few periods where clubs decided to support women’s football.
Marta is the only player in the history of world football — yes, I am talking about any gender here — to have received five times in a row the FIFA award for world’s best player (from 2006 to 2010). She is also the greatest goal scorer in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup with 15 goals so far, followed closely by the German player Birgit Prinz.
Moreover, Marta has surpassed Pelé in goals scored while playing for the Seleção. He stopped at 95 goals, Marta has already scored 117 goals wearing the magic yellow jersey, a record that makes her the Seleção’s all-times goal scorer.
All these stats are solid evidence for my statement that Marta is better than Pelé.
However, there is something else that might place Marta above the ‘Football King’. Women’s football has always been relegated and even forbidden in Brazil. Hence, for Brazilian girls and women, playing football has always been more than a sporting action: it’s a political statement.
As a woman goes into the business of kicking a ball with her feet, she constantly threatens the gender status quo in the most machista arena of the country — the football fields.
Marta was never a political or a feminist leader, preferring to demonstrate her political acts within the footballing context. Nevertheless, she has never refused to support the gender agenda that was in front of her.
She has always been with her teammates whenever they needed to fight for better conditions for female footballers.
For example, after conquering the Silver Medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics with the female Seleção, Marta and the team pressured the infamous Ricardo Teixeira, the CBF [Brazilian Football Federation] President at that time to give more attention to women’s football. They sent him a letter, a manifesto emphasising the need for the Federation to appropriately establish women’s football in Brazil.
They demanded enough funding and a permanent national team as well as a schedule with regional and national tournaments. In this manifesto, the women clearly stated that no athlete should be chosen based on her body shape, hair, skin colour or image, as happened in the past when the Federation was trying to make football a ‘beauty contest’ by only selecting young, white and blond players to participate in teams.
If one cannot say that Marta was an activist, she was not someone who was silent either. She has always fought the right battle to advance women’s football and hence gender rights in Brazilian society.
Pelé once declared that “Marta is the Pelé who wears skirts”. Future generations may change his statement and simply say that Marta is the best footballer who has ever served the Seleção. Full stop.
This is an excerpt from Jorge Knijnik's book The World Cup Chronicles – 31 Days that Rocked Brazil published by Fair Play Publishing in 2018.
Australia meet Brazil on Friday 14 August at 2am (AEST) in their second match of Group C.