Amid a presently undefeated season with the first-place Orlando Satisfaction and high-profile retirements from Alex Morgan and Christine Sinclair, Brazilian celebrity Marta mentioned she plans to play skilled soccer for no less than two extra years.
“I don’t know if I’m gonna be in Orlando. However my thought is like, play no less than two extra years,” she instructed The Athletic. Her present contract with the Satisfaction is up after the 2024 season.
Marta has scored seven objectives and recorded two assists in 19 video games this season, and the Satisfaction are seven factors away from second-place Washington Spirit, whom they face on Sunday. In the event that they win, they’ll clinch the NWSL defend, awarded to the workforce with the best common season level whole.
In 2023, Marta had 4 objectives, all from penalties, and performed a extra central attacking midfield place. This season, head coach Seb Hines has moved Marta greater on the sphere to play alongside Barbra Banda.
“To run after Barbra, you should work arduous. That you must be in good condition,” Marta joked by the use of explaining the vitality she has exhibited on the sphere this yr.
This has been a season of revitalization for Marta, who received a silver medal with Brazil on the Olympics in France earlier than retiring from worldwide soccer. “I received’t stroll away from soccer. I wish to assist this technology not directly,” she mentioned after that recreation, which Brazil misplaced 1-0 to america.
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For membership, and with the Satisfaction season going so effectively, Marta mentioned she was glad along with her resolution to return to Orlando in 2017.
“I really feel good that I made a decision to remain right here for thus lengthy and have to undergo all of those conditions yr by yr,” she mentioned.
“I got here to Orlando as a result of I wish to be near my nation, be near my family and friends, be capable of see them somewhat bit extra typically. I got here right here, after which I met good folks. The neighborhood, it’s superb. We have now nearly everyone from all over the place — Latino, Europe. So I really feel so snug with this. And I began to visualise my life right here in Orlando not only for one or two years, however for a very long time.”
Since 2017, the Satisfaction have had six head coaches, together with interims, and after Marta’s first yr with the membership, during which they completed third general, have since by no means completed greater than seventh or certified for playoffs. In 2024, the Satisfaction had been the primary workforce to mathematically clinch a playoff place, with Marta averaging 78 minutes performed per recreation.
“I all the time have in my thoughts that if I put myself on this state of affairs, I have to do the perfect,” she mentioned. “I wish to play as a result of I nonetheless have one thing to present to the workforce. I nonetheless have the vitality that the workforce wants for me and the standard that the soccer world asks for… I really feel good.”
After beating Bay FC 1-0 in September, Marta instructed the post-match media: “I wish to do extra. I wish to break extra data, it doesn’t matter what, so no person can catch us.”
(High photograph: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Photos)