There was a time when she appeared to be playing a different sport from her opponents. Now, many more players from a range of different countries are worthy of sharing a pitch with the great Marta.

Sometimes destiny can choose the most unlikely people to shake the world. Marta comes from a small town in the remote North Eastern state of Alagoas.

Born into a poor family in a macho environment, she had to overcome resistance from her own family in order to take up football - a sport which had been banned for women for decades in Brazil, and which has only recently offered the slightest chance of a career path.

There were brave pioneers before her, many of whom laboured and sacrificed away for no reward and little time in the spotlight. But she took on the challenge and raised the game to heights that her predecessors could scarcely have dreamed were possible.

Marta is the giant on whose shoulders the contemporary women's game stands.

And this, supposedly, is the end. Or is it?

In 2027, Brazil will host the Women's World Cup. There must be a temptation to stay on for one last crack, to spend a little time in the house that she built.

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