Marta: trailblazer and trickster
How the greatest of them all made people fall in love with women’s football
Even in 2024, with women’s football pulling record audiences on television and in stadiums, it still feels like the sport is stepping out from the darkness. So, when we rewind the clock 21 years, it only makes Marta’s unique displays at the 2003 World Cup that much more noteworthy.
Before Marta, no one in women’s football was quite like the diminutive attacker. Of course, the game has seen many expressive and deft players, but there has never been another like Marta. Announcing herself on the world stage at age 17 during the relocated 2003 World Cup, the teen opened Brazil’s scoring at the tournament from 12 yards against South Korea. Yet it wasn’t until the tournament four years later in China that all eyes fell on the celebrated no.10.
