After helping Brazil return to the Olympic podium, Marta led Orlando Pride to a maiden NWSL title and was nominated for the coveted Marta Award during a stellar 2024.
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Marta has enjoyed a successful 2024 for both club and country
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The ‘Queen of Football’ won the NWSL title with Orlando Pride
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Helped Brazil to silver at Paris 2024 in her final Olympic Games
“If the Copa America were happening now, Marta would be in the squad.”
While he may not have called up the “Queen of Football” for his side’s back-to-back friendlies against Australia this week, Brazil coach Arthur Elias reaffirmed that she remains in the picture for the Seleção. Her accolades – both individual and collective – and her overall performances in 2024 go a long way to justifying the coach’s confidence in her.
Now 38, Marta ended her club season on a real high. Last Saturday, the Brazilian led the Orlando Pride to a first-ever NWSL title, the top tier of women’s football in the USA.
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The Orlando Pride captain maintained consistently impressive form throughout the NWSL season, in which she was her side’s second top scorer with 11 goals, including a mesmerising solo effort in the play-off semi-final against the KC Current. She also put in a 90-minute shift in the 1-0 victory over the Washington Spirit in the title-clinching finale.
“I’ve been asking myself why I’m still playing for Orlando,” Marta said. “After eight years, I’m the only player [who’s been with] the club since 2017. I have so many questions, but now I have the answer: it’s because it was time to be champions.”
The championship victory capped off a memorable season in which the Pride reigned supreme. With Marta and Zambia star Barbra Banda, who netted 17 goals, leading the line, the side also won the NWSL Shield, setting a new record of 24 consecutive games without defeat in the regular season.
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Days after winning the title, she was nominated for the inaugural FIFA Marta Award, a prize established in her honour to celebrate the year’s best goal in the women’s game.
The strike that earned her the nomination was one of two she scored in Brazil’s win over Jamaica in June at the Arena de Pernambuco, a warm-up game ahead of Paris 2024.
Marta showed her magic on the international stage throughout 2024 – a year that would ultimately see her bid farewell to the Olympic Games. She won the third silver of her career at Paris 2024, adding to those earned in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, and ensuring Brazil of a first podium place since their Chinese adventure more than 15 years before.
Having made the starting line-up in Brazil’s first three games at the tournament, she was sent off in the group-stage defeat to Spain, meaning her only other appearance at the tournament was as a second-half substitute in the final, where Brazil lost 1-0 to USA.
“I don’t know how long I’m going to carry on playing for. I don’t want to say it’s going to be one or two years,” she said in an interview with FIFA in March, when she also revealed her dream of becoming a mum.
Though she may not want to set a date for retirement, Marta was unequivocal in bidding farewell to both the Olympic Games and the FIFA Women’s World Cup™. In the case of the latter, she confirmed that she would never play in the competition again after Brazil were eliminated in the group stage in 2023.
“There is no more World Cup for Marta,” she said at the time. “I’m very happy with all that has been happening in women’s football in Brazil and the world. For them, it’s just the beginning. For me, it’s the end of the line now.”
While Marta herself insists she won’t be playing at the next World Cup, which will be held in her homeland for the first time, her performances on the pitch tell their own tale.
In mid-2025, Brazil will head into another CONMEBOL Copa America Femenina, two years prior to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™. Perhaps the coach’s assertion begs a new question: If the World Cup were happening now, would Marta be in the squad?
