Marta leaves her mark in Brazilian football
(Reuters) - Brazilian number 10 Marta is the only woman who has been given the privilege of dipping her feet in cement and leaving her footprints in the Walk of Fame in front of Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium.
The invitation to join Pele, Garrincha, Jairzinho, Romario, Zico, Rivelino and Franz Beckenbauer showed the esteem in which the 22-year-old is held in Brazil.
Voted World Player of the Year for the last two years running, Marta has almost single-handedly dragged Brazilian women's football from the doldrums and brought it near to the level expected from the world's top soccer nation.
Marta scored seven goals in helping Brazil reach their first women's World Cup final last year, before they lost to Germany in the final, and also helped them win the Pan-American Games soccer tournament in Rio de Janeiro.
Four years ago she was in the team which won the silver medal in Athens and now she hopes to inspire them to a go one step further and win Olympic gold for the first time.
Raised in the small town of Dois Riachos in the north-eastern state of Alagoas, deep in Brazil's arid Sertao region, Martha used to join in kickabouts with her brothers when she was a child.
She left at the age of 16 to try her luck with Vasco da Gama and within two years was playing international football at youth level.
Many fans say Marta has done more for women's football than the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) in a country which has not held a national championship for women since 2001.
Marta has played in Sweden since she was 18.
(Writing by Brian Homewood in Buenos Aires; Editing by Robert Woodward)
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