Brazilian legend Marta will retire from international football this year.

The 38-year-old confirmed the news in an interview with CNN Esportes S/A that airs Sunday, saying she is at peace with her decision given the promising future of Brazil’s national team, which has a pipeline of young, blossoming talent.

“This is my last year, and I can already confirm it here. There is a moment when we have to understand that the time has come,” Marta told CNN. “I am very calm about this, because I see with great optimism this development that we are having in relation to young athletes.”

Marta has appeared in five Olympics throughout her decorated career, winning silver medals in 2004 and 2008. It remains to be seen if she will be chosen to represent Brazil at the Paris Olympics this summer but she said that, regardless, she will no longer be with the team come 2025.

“If I go to the Olympics, I will enjoy every moment, because regardless of whether I go to the Olympics or not, this is my last year with the national team,” Marta said to CNN. “There is no longer Marta in the national team as an athlete from 2025 onwards.”

GO DEEPER

Marta urges support for women’s football after final World Cup elimination

Marta’s impact on women’s soccer has been paramount.

That much was…

The United States and Mexico have confirmed their joint-bid to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have also submitted a joint European bid to world football’s governing body FIFA, while Brazil lodged their offer a day before the December 8 deadline.

South Africa had been in the initial running, only to withdraw their interest last month to instead focus on the 2031 tournament.

The U.S hosted the tournament in 1999 and 2003, while Germany were the host nation in 2011.

The 2023 World Cup — hosted by Australia and New Zealand, and won by Spain — was the first women’s tournament to be held across two countries, but a competition across Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany would be the first hosted in three countries.

Brazil would make history if they were selected, with the Women’s World Cup having never previously been hosted in South America.

What happens next?

After officially confirming the bidders, FIFA will next organise on-site inspection visits to bidding countries in February.

The hosts are then expected to be appointed when the FIFA Congress meets on May 17, 2024.

The bids

U.S./Mexico

The United States and Mexico announced their bid on April 19 just before the kickoff of an international friendly between the U.S. men’s national team…

Back in January, former Barcelona player Dani Alves was arrested by local police investigating an alleged sexual assault in a nightclub in the Spanish city.

Alves, who played 408 matches for Barca across two spells, as well as 126 times for Brazil, has been in custody since his arrest on January 20 — 321 days ago. He is being held in a prison to the north west of Barcelona.

At the time of the alleged sexual assault on December 30 last year, he was signed to Mexican club Pumas UNAM. They terminated his contract in January.

Alves, who turned 40 in May, has repeatedly denied the allegation, including at several appeal hearings. He has also given different versions of events to investigators and, in an interview in June, admitted initially “lying” about what happened.

With a trial approaching — it was first planned for the end of the year but now appears likely to take place in early 2024 — this article, which contains graphic details of the alleged sexual assault, explains the case so far in full.

What is alleged to have happened?

The chronology of events dates back to December 9 last year, when Croatia beat Brazil in the World Cup quarter-finals in Qatar.

Alves was part of the Brazil squad, and when they were knocked out he returned to Spain to rest with his wife, Joana…

Argentina captain Lionel Messi says his side’s World Cup qualifier against Brazil “could have ended in tragedy” after crowd trouble at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil captain Marquinhos added that it was a “very scary situation”, with photographs of the match and video on social media appearing to show police with batons clashing with supporters in the stands.

Ahead of kick-off, which had been scheduled for 9.30pm local time on Tuesday, Messi and other Argentina players went to the stands and spoke to fans, before going back to their dressing room. The Argentina players then re-emerged with the match starting almost half an hour late.

“We saw how they were hitting the people, again repressing the people,” Messi said, via Reuters.

“It already happened in the (Copa) Libertadores final (where there were clashes between Boca Juniors and Fluminense supporters and the police at the Maracana). We went to the locker room because it was the best way to calm everything down, it could have ended in tragedy.”

Several fans appeared to sustain injuries during the crowd disturbances.

“We were worried about the families, women and children, that we were seeing in panic up there in the stands,” Marquinhos said.

“Down on the pitch, it was hard for us to…

Manchester United winger Antony has returned to England from Brazil and is set to meet police over assault allegations, which he denies.

Antony is under investigation by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) after his former partner Gabriela Cavallin alleged he assaulted her on separate occasions between June 2022 and May this year.

The United player is currently on a leave of absence but returned to England on Tuesday.

Antony has also spoken to Sao Paulo police over Cavallin’s allegations but has been permitted to leave Brazil.

Cavallin had alleged in an interview with Brazil news outlet UOL, which was published on September 4, that she was first attacked by Antony on June 1, 2022 while she was pregnant when on holiday in Brazil.

She claimed he threatened to throw her from a moving car.Cavallin further alleged she was head-butted and punched by Antony in a Manchester hotel room on January 15, 2023, which resulted in a damaged breast implant. She claims she also sustained a finger injury during an incident on May 8 2023.

Antony, in an extended interview with Brazilian TV channel SBT, said that while their relationship was “turbulent,” he “never touched her” and described allegations that he had injured her as a “lie”.

Two further women — Rayssa de Freitas and Ingrid Lana…

Manchester United winger Antony will not return to England “until further notice” as he continues to address allegations of assault, which he denies.

Antony is under investigation by Brazilian authorities and Greater Manchester Police after his former partner Gabriela Cavallin alleged he assaulted her on separate occasions between June 2022 and May this year. Two further women made accusations against him in the Brazilian media on Thursday.

The 23-year-old labelled Cavallin’s allegations “false” in a initial statement on social media, but on Friday he gave an extended interview to Brazilian TV channel SBT in which he strongly denied assaulting any woman, saying: “I never have and I never will.”

Antony was dropped from the Brazil squad for this month’s internationals.

But though the Manchester United players not on international duty are expected back at the club’s Carrington training base on Monday, Antony will take a “period of absence” in what the club and player said was a mutual decision.

A club statement on Sunday afternoon read: “Manchester United acknowledges the allegations made against Antony.

“Players who have not participated in international matches are due back in training on Monday. However, it has been agreed with Antony that he will delay…

Manchester United winger Antony has given an interview in his homeland of Brazil, denying allegations of assault from his former partner Gabriela Cavallin, as well as two other women.

Antony is under investigation by Brazilian authorities and Greater Manchester Police after Cavallin alleged he assaulted her on separate occasions between June 2022 and May this year.

In an interview with Brazil news outlet UOL that was published on Monday, September 4, Cavallin alleged she was first attacked by Antony on June 1, 2022 while she was pregnant when on holiday in Brazil. She claims he threatened to throw her from a moving car.

Cavallin further alleges she was head-butted and punched by Antony in a Manchester hotel room on January 15, 2023, which resulted in a damaged breast implant. She claims she also sustained a finger injury during an incident on May 8 2023.

GO DEEPER

Antony attack allegations: What happened, what’s been said, what now for United forward?

Antony had labelled Cavallin’s allegations “false” in a statement on social media and denied them further during an interview with Brazil TV channel SBT on Friday, insisting that while their relationship was “turbulent,” he “never touched her”.

He told the Fofocalizando programme. “This was what happened: I left…

Two more women have come forward alleging they have been assaulted by Manchester United and Brazil winger Antony, according to reports in Brazil.

The 23-year-old is under investigation by Brazilian authorities and Greater Manchester Police after his ex-girlfriend Gabriela Cavallin alleged Antony assaulted her on separate occasions between June 2022 and May this year.

The player, who has been dropped from the Brazil squad for this month’s internationals, has strongly denied the accusations made by Cavallin.

“From the beginning I have handled this issue seriously and respectfully, providing the due clarifications to the police authority,” he said in a statement issued on his social media accounts.

Brazilian outlet Extra reported on Thursday that a woman called Rayssa de Freitas filed a police complaint against Antony on May 20 2022, claiming she needed hospital treatment after being in the former Ajax player’s car with another woman and a hairdresser following a visit to a nightclub in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

A third woman, Ingrid Lana, 33, has also claimed Antony pushed her against a wall and tried to have sex with her when she visited his house in England last October.

In an interview with Record TV, due to be broadcast on Sunday, Lana said: “He tried to have (sexual)…

Manchester United are at the centre of another case involving allegations of violence against women after forward Antony was accused of attacking his former partner Gabriela Cavallin.

The 23-year-old is under investigation by Brazilian authorities and Greater Manchester Police after Cavallin alleged Antony assaulted her on separate occasions between June 2022 and May this year.

Antony denies all the allegations but was removed from the Brazil national team squad following an interview with Cavallin, published by Brazil news outlet UOL on Monday.

United have faced calls to suspend Antony, just weeks after the Old Trafford club’s internal investigation into Mason Greenwood concluded.

United released a statement on Wednesday insisting they are taking the matter “seriously”, though stopped short of confirming whether the former Ajax winger will be made unavailable for selection.

Club statement.

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 6, 2023

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Who is Antony?

The 23-year-old winger joined United in a €100m (£86m) deal from Ajax in August 2022 as one of Erik ten Hag’s first signings following his appointment as manager.

Antony, who had previously played under Ten Hag at Ajax, made 44 appearances during his first season at Old Trafford, scoring eight goals.

Born in Sao Paolo, he…

In a funny way, it is testament to the progress of the women’s game in Brazil that their World Cup group-stage elimination at the hands of Jamaica has prompted a proper bout of hand-wringing.

Historically, there has always been a slight reluctance to pile in on this Selecao. Between a lack of funding, dysfunctional institutions, deep-set societal sexism and generalised indifference, Brazil’s women footballers have always had the odds stacked against them. When they came up short in tournaments, the instinct was to sympathise rather than chastise.

This time, though, things feel a little different.

We are not quite talking about the levels of national hysteria that accompany any major defeat for the Brazil men’s team, but the criticism of Wednesday’s performance in Melbourne has been sharp and surgical.

“Brazil played without personality,” was the verdict of Globo commentator Ana Thais Matos. Alicia Klein, a columnist for the UOL website, the country’s leading news portal, was similarly cutting. “The team was apathetic and nervous,” Klein wrote. “They came up short tactically, technically and emotionally.”

From an emotional perspective, there were obvious failings in the goalless draw with Jamaica, who advanced to the round-of-16 instead. “Patience” has…