Marta: The Brazilian star at the center of Orlando Pride

Marta Vieira da Silva is one of the defining figures in women’s football, and Orlando is part of the latest chapter of her club career. Known mononymously as Marta, the Brazilian forward plays for Orlando Pride in the National Women’s Soccer League and captains Brazil’s women’s national team.

Her résumé spans individual honors, international records and major club achievements. Marta has been named FIFA World Player of the Year six times, a recognition that places her among the most decorated players in the sport. She is also widely regarded as one of the greatest female footballers ever.

For Brazil, Marta has scored more goals than any other player in the country’s history, with 122 goals listed as of 2025. Her World Cup record is similarly significant: she has scored 17 career goals in the tournament, more than any other player. She was the first footballer, regardless of gender, to score at five World Cups. She also became the first to score at five consecutive Olympic Games.

Marta’s Olympic record includes silver medals with Brazil in 2004, 2008 and 2024. Those results place her across multiple generations of Brazilian national teams and reflect the length of her international career. At the 2004 FIFA Under-19 Women’s World Championship, she won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s top player. Three years later, at the 2007 Women’s World Cup, she received both the Golden Ball and Golden Boot awards while Brazil reached the final.

Her club career includes a major European title. Marta won the UEFA Women’s Cup with Sweden’s Umeå IK in 2004 and collected seven Swedish league championships while playing for several clubs in Sweden. Her move into the Orlando Pride fold connects that international history with a team based in Central Florida.

For Orlando readers, Marta’s significance is not limited to a list of records. Her career links the local professional game to Brazil’s national team, the Olympics, the World Cup and the development of women’s football across Europe and North America. Her presence gives Orlando Pride a player whose career can be traced through some of the sport’s most important competitions and honors.

Marta’s story is therefore both local and global: an elite Brazilian international playing in Orlando, with a record of achievement that stretches from youth competition to the world’s biggest stages.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Marta (footballer)” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marta_(footballer) The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://viaf.org/viaf/107921015 - https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2003/09/25/brazils-marta-is-a-10/7b15ba31-ab88-494a-952d-a92239e33e2a/ - https://web.archive.org/web/20091019031514/http://www.womensprosoccer.com/Home/news/general/091009-off-season-loand.aspx - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2007/jun/03/womensfootball.football - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2007/sep/27/newsstory.sport - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/jul/10/brazil-usa-live-womens-world-cup Image rights Photograph description: Washington Spirit vs Orlando Pride, 23 June 2018, Maryland SoccerPlex, Boyds, MD Creator: Jamie Smed from Cincinnati, Ohio. License: CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACamila_%26_Marta_(43050926091).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.