The Women’s World Cup all-time top scorer. Five FIFA World Player of the Year awards. Eleven FIFA World Player of the Year nominations. Olympic silver medal winner. Golden Shoe at a Women’s World Cup. Golden Boot at a Women’s World Cup. Four Damallsvenskan titles. Two WPS championships.

The list is seemingly endless. However, this is no money-stained trophy cabinet from some extortionately-valuable football franchise. Nor is it the unassailable trophy haul of the likes of Jose Mourinho.

This formidable list of honours belongs to a 5’4” Brazilian female, born in a small suburb of the west coast of Brazil in 1986.

Marta Vieira da Silva.

From the beginning of her career as a humble striker, everyone knew Marta was special. Originally playing (and outshining) boys on the unassuming streets of Dois Riachos, she was recruited at just 14 by Vasco Da Gama, one of Brazil’s most prestigious football clubs.

Having experienced severe sexism throughout her childhood for being a girl, she then underwent more adversity following the abolishment of the women’s team in Vasco Da Gama. Marta was alone.

Playing for a minor club named Santa Cruz in the state of Minas Gerais, over 1000 miles from her home, was the polar opposite of Marta’s enlightening dreams of stardom. Then, disaster, as Santa Cruz folded at the culmination of the 2004 season.

With no club and seemingly, no prospects, Marta travelled to Sweden, in the hope of seeking out a career in football. She was barely 18 years old, and had already faced one of the rockiest roads ever traversed in a football career. However, it was in Sweden, at Umeå IK, that things finally began to look up for this battered and bruised teenager.

Raw and rampant at Umeå IK, Marta finally declared herself on the world stage. Scoring a staggering 22 league goals in her first season, she developed her goalscoring prowess through her subsequent seasons, playing alongside some of the most incredible female footballers in the world.

During this golden age, Umeå IK became the most fruitful women’s football team in the world. In Marta’s inaugural season, they prevailed over Europe to win the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the second year running. Subsequently, they continued their victory epidemic in the Damallsvenskan by winning the Swedish title in four straight seasons.

Despite the distinct lack of funding in women’s football, Marta was soon acclaimed around the globe as the superlative female footballer. As a result of her stunning performances, personal honours were showered upon her. In 2006, she acquired her first FIFA World Player of the Year, shrugging off competition from the likes of Kristine Lilly.

Only five footballers have had the sheer footballing dexterity to win three FIFA World Player of the Year titles. Marta became the second female footballer to join that exalted rank in 2008, alongside the cataclysmically-successful Birgit Prinz. However, it was on this day that Marta announced she was moving to Los Angeles Sol, to the despair of Swedish women’s football.

It was here, in the Golden State of America, that Marta officially became the most decorated footballer in history, as she attained her fourth World Player of the Year title. The journey she had made from a victimised teenager to the most decorated footballer ever was astounding.

No-one has yet repeated the incredible feats of Marta. It is possible no-on ever will. However, few football fans recognise these incredible achievements, simply because women’s football is so neglected.

With the Women’s World Cup, I would encourage football fans across the globe to participate actively in publicising the women’s game. We may hear about the incredible success of stories of male footballers. But Marta is living proof that women can make just as significant an impact.