![]() Being someone little girls could look up to, someone who showed them their dreams could come true? Having an impact like that, having that as a legacy? That, to me, is all I could dream of. It would be more valuable to me than any titles or medals or trophies that I have won. It makes me so proud that maybe there are kids out there watching me, and that it may inspire them to reach for the stars. I am so happy knowing that little girls all over the world will be able to watch us out on the pitch living out our dreams. We’re about to play in the biggest Women’s World Cup of all time. Can I be honest? I am so tired of talking about it! I don’t want to be asked about Marta anymore.” - Marta I had no choice but to pick someone on the men’s side. I followed Rivaldo because I loved the way he played, and he was a lefty like me, but it was also about the fact that there were no women in the spotlight like he was. I mean, think about this: When I was a little girl, there wasn’t even really a woman footballer I could look up to and hope to become one day. We’ve still got a ways to go, but I think maybe people don’t fully realize just how far we’ve progressed. Not too long ago, those of us who love women’s football, we used to fight to achieve a better structure. And it really is incredible when I think about how far we’ve come. Because my life and this game … they have changed so much since those days back in the sertão. My mom is why I am who I am.Īnd I will be thinking about her as I run out onto the pitch for this Women’s World Cup. In our family, we turn every No into a Yes. ![]() Seeing how she lived her life, and feeling the support she gave me in letting me play football so that I could be happy. And then … she would come in the house, cook for her four kids, make sure we had everything we needed, and get ready to wake up early the next morning and do it all over again. So let her be.” That’s all she would say. So to her it was like, “If Marta is meant to play football, God will show her the way. She’s Catholic, and very devoted to her faith. You have to understand: My mom is very religious. She never came to me and told me to stop. So so so much shit.Īnd my mom, God bless her, she just looked at those people and … absolutely ignored what they had to say. They talked so much shit to her back in the day. Why are you letting your daughter play a man’s game? What’s that girl doing running around with the boys? Then, after a long day, when she got back at 7 or 8, she would have to hear the talk from the people in the neighborhood. She had to work long into the night to support me and my three siblings. My mom, she would leave in the morning super, super early for work. Then, when I got home after the games, it was my mother who gave me my strength. When the boys would talk shit to me, I would just ignore them and keep playing. But me? What can I tell you? I loved football too much to be deterred. ![]() They probably didn’t want to get picked on or called names. No other girls in our town had the audacity. I’d get dressed quickly and head out into the street, where the games were, and look around and … it would be an ocean of boys. Growing up in the sertão, the backcountry, in Alagoas, each morning I would wake up bright and early looking to play football. Everything I do, everything I accomplish, any successes I achieve in life, it all goes back to my mom.
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