Such is her stature in the women’s game that Marta has found herself on a plane to Switzerland every winter for the last ten years. A serial attendee of the FIFA Ballon d’Or, her invite is by no means just a courtesy. Indeed, the Brazilian No10 has finished in the top three of the Women’s World Player category every year for the past decade, scooping the main prize herself at five consecutive Galas (2006-2010).
Always amenable and available for a chat with FIFA.com, the 28-year-old naturally cuts a more mature and composed figure these days than on her early visits to Zurich. Yet she has not lost her spark, sense of fun nor burning desire to continue to push the growth of women’s football in Brazil. On the agenda for the conversation this time around were her high and lowlights of 2014 and, of course, A Canarinha’s major challenge for 2015: the FIFA Women’s World Cup™ in Canada.
FIFA.com: You’ve not missed a Gala since 2004. Does it still feel like a special occasion?
It’s fantastic! In a way, you end up setting this, being here, as one of your goals. This is proof that you’ve been playing at a very competitive level for a long time. That’s why, when the season finishes, you’re already hoping to come back and get your dose of Zurich! (Laughs) The first time I came here I was very shy, but I’m much more relaxed in these situations now.
Taking a look back at your 2014, what’s your most striking memory?
I think it has to be the Champions League final [Editor’s note: Marta netted twice in Tyreso FF’s 4-3 defeat against German and European champions VfL Wolfsburg]. We didn’t win, but we were going through tough times at the club. We knew that we were going to play the final and then the next day the club would fold. In the months leading up to the final, there were problems even for us to train, but the squad all pulled together. We said: ‘Let’s forget about everything off the pitch, the late wages… We’re going to work for each other and we’ll reach the final, because this squad deserves it.’ We grew into one big family. That’s how we managed to reach the decider and go toe-to-toe with a very solid Wolfsburg team. It was a very special time.
Was that the year’s best women’s football match?
It was a brilliant game! But there’s another match I have to mention too. Late in the year I played in a tournament with the national team and the USA were also in it, the first time the US women’s side had come to Brazil for several years. We were losing 2-0 but ended up winning 3-2. It was another game that had a big impact on me in 2014. Both of them are in the mix, 50-50.
Let’s talk about A Seleção. There’s not long to go until the Women’s World Cup in Canada. How are the players preparing for the challenge ahead? Are Brazil not as strong as they once were?
That’s a fact. We’re now eighth in the FIFA Ranking, while we’ve been higher in the past… What’s gone wrong? Well, from my point of view, we hit a high standard in 2004, 2007 and 2008 when finishing runners-up at the Athens Olympics, Women’s World Cup China and Beijing Olympics respectively… From that point on we’ve kept a core of players together, but some new ones have come in and others hung up their boots. We weren’t able to properly replace the players that left though, so we’ve had to start afresh with a new generation.
We’ve got a league championship in Brazil now, though it’s still not very competitive or popular. A few years back we didn’t even have that and the national coach faced enormous difficulties in finding quality players, because he couldn’t get to see them… We wasted a lot of time and we didn’t manage to take full advantage of the generation that burst onto the scene in 2004. There should have been a more consistent, long-term project put in place, to develop promising players to a high enough standard to adequately replace the ones who moved on. So we started from zero again. And we have to be very thorough this time too, because us veteran players, like me, Cristiane, Formiga and Andreia Suntaque won’t be around forever. Only through consistent hard work can we keep the national team strong.
Realistically, what are Brazil’s chances at Canada 2015?
I think that we’ve got the ability to do very well, to battle it out with the heavyweights like Germany, USA, France, Sweden, Japan, Canada, England… That said, our current status doesn’t reflect that, because we’ve fallen down the Ranking. If we want to be compared to those past Brazil teams, we have to prove it out on the pitch. The World Cup is coming up, the Olympic Games are next year… it’s crunch time now. New coach Vadao [Oswaldo Alvarez] is doing a very good job, he’s giving all the girls a chance, he’s training with the Brazil-based players every day… That’s hugely important if we want to get the best possible team together and do well at these competitions.
What’s the new coach’s biggest strength?
His straightforwardness. He’s a very friendly guy and the girls feel comfortable with him. If there’s something that needs saying he’ll say it, but without going over the top. That’s to say, before we were a bit more restricted, told not to do this or that, but now we’re given more freedom and it helps. The girls join up with the national squad happy, with smiles on their faces, knowing that things are going smoothly. The whole squad are chasing the same goal and nobody thinks they’re better than anyone else.
Vadao coached in men’s football for over 20 years. Do you think that makes a difference when it comes to his coaching style?
No, I don’t think so, though one thing you do notice is the amount of experience he has. He makes it easier for everyone to get on together. For things to go well, you need to feel good in the workplace. That makes a difference and the players notice it. Vadao, and also Rene Simoes, give you the opportunity to have your say. Just because you’re a player doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have an opinion, and we like our voices to be heard too. We can talk to him and that’s a good thing. We’re feeling good and that makes things go better.
Taking a brief look back at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™, which you attended first-hand, what’s the main lesson you drew from that tournament?
Germany’s teamwork. They didn’t have just one standout player, a superstar, but their teamwork was vital in them winning the title. It shone through in all their games and it was what impressed me most.
And what was your view on their 7-1 defeat of Brazil? Where did you watch it?
I was in the stadium. As a Brazil fan I was devastated, very sad… Not about the defeat so much but by the manner of it. I’ve tried to find an answer for it, but to this day I can’t fully understand what happened. As I said, Germany had a very strong team ethic but we weren’t expecting to lose like that. As a sportswoman I’ve been through difficult situations, such as when you see your team is slipping out of a match and needs to get going again, but there’s not enough time. Things happen very fast. I could sense that in that match: the goals were flying in so fast that the Brazil players couldn’t react, couldn’t say to themselves, ‘Let’s sort ourselves out, let’s do something different. We might lose but not like this.’ They didn’t even have time for that: it was a situation I’d never seen before and one that I don’t think will ever happen again [to Brazil].
How did you feel after the game?
I felt a bit apprehensive. There were so many people in the stadium, on the streets and we’d just lost 7-1… Brazilians don’t take defeat well. In fact, I decided to slip out of the stadium about ten minutes before the end.
The result appears to have led to some major changes in working methods in Brazilian football. What’s your view on the fallout of that result?
I’ve not followed it too closely because I’ve been living abroad for so long, but I read the news, the players’ comments… Of course, that defeat meant that everybody started looking for scapegoats. But when things aren’t working, what you need to do is look for solutions to your problems, not for someone to blame.
