Marta Vieira da Silva was used to getting funny looks. In the small Brazilian town of Dois Riachos she was the only girl who played football - and that was only when the boys allowed her to.

She came from an extremely poor family. "We didn't have enough money even to buy a football," Marta remembers. "If my mum had done that we would have gone without food."¹

Luckily an older cousin recognised Marta's great skill. When she was 14 he got a friend to arrange a trial for her with a women's team in Rio de JaneiroA seaside city in Brazil with a population of 6.7 million. and helped pay for her bus fare. 

At the trial she scored with her first touch. She hit the ball so hard that it knocked the goalkeeper over backwards.

The club signed her, and she was soon promoted to the senior team. By 16 she was playing for Brazil.

She moved to Europe, where she helped the Swedish side Umea IK win the UEFA Women's Cup in her first season.

"The cold was a challenge," she says. "I went from 35C every day in Brazil to a place where it reaches -22 in the winter. But my life has always been about breaking barriers. I saw everything as a challenge."

In 2006 she was named World Player of the Year - a title she would hold for five seasons running.

Marta is Brazil's all-time top goal scorer, with a tally of 118 from 183 games. She has scored the most goals of any player, male or female, in the World Cup (17). She was also the first to score a goal in five different World Cups.²

She has won two Olympic silver medals - and now has one more chance to win a gold. Last week Brazil's manager named her in his women's squad for Paris, calling her "the greatest athlete of all time".³

Marta has also worked as a UN ambassador to promote women's and girls' sport. She wants to pass on "this message of hope", so that they can be "inspired by my story and follow their own path".

Does she have a lesson for us all?

Yes: To come from a family that could not afford a football and rise to the top of the sport is an extraordinary achievement. It shows what can be accomplished if you have the determination.

No: Determination can only take you so far. Marta would not have succeeded if she had not been born with a really exceptional talent. She also had the luck to meet someone who could arrange a trial.

Or... Marta shows how a single person can change perceptions. Her success has forced the Brazilian authorities to take women's football more seriously, and inspired female players around the world.