Brazilian women’s team star Marta has had her life story published by Diego Graciano following his “single-minded pursuit of the story of the world’s greatest woman footballer,” writes John Turnbull.
The book is called ‘You Are A Woman, Marta!’ which was her mother’s remonstrative response when her daughter first asked her for a soccer ball. Her mother, the player’s strongest supporter, told her that she should stop dreaming of being a soccer player because it would never happen, and the risk of injury was too great. To which Marta would reply: “If I die of injuries from playing soccer, I want you to place a soccer ball inside my coffin, so that I will die satisfied.”
Turnbull summarizes Marta’s life and career, provides a translation of the book’s prologue and preface, and tells of the difficulties that Graciano had in finding a publisher in Brazil. In the end the author self-published the book, which was written with the co-operation of Marta and her family, because publishers were not interested in the women’s game, and because of previous legal difficulties with biographies of players such as Garrincha and Roberto Carlos.