Marta turned 37 years old on Sunday. On that day, she played 38 minutes in a loss to Canada, Brazil’s second match of the SheBelieves Cup and her second appearance on the field since March 2022, when she tore her ACL in a NWSL Challenge Cup match. Hours after the loss to Canada, Marta was serenading her team back at the hotel for her own birthday.
Marta has always been one of one, and at this point in her storied career, there isn’t much that has not already been said about the depth of her talent, the legacy she will leave and the magic she has created time and again across the world. But continuing to highlight these things remains important, both to understand exactly what her role is now on this particular version of the Seleção under head coach Pia Sundhage and to take those moments of magic as they come, to hold them up to the light and treasure them for what they are.
Marta’s still dancing. It looks different now, especially compared to the height of her powers — breaking ankles, impossible angles with any part of her foot, testing the laws of physics and finding them unsuitable for her purposes.
Marta is the OG menace pic.twitter.com/ddrlcaKdvw
— Courtney Stith (@CourtneyStith) February 19, 2023
Last week in Orlando, her home NWSL hometown, fans cheered…
