Formiga (footballer, born 1978)

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In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Maciel and the second or paternal family name is Mota.

Formiga
Formiga (08), meio-campista, DSC00910-2012-26-07.jpg
At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
Personal information
Full name Miraildes Maciel Mota[1]
Date of birth (1978-03-03) 3 March 1978 (age 44)
Place of birth Salvador, Bahia, Brazil[2]
Height 162 cm (5 ft 4 in)[3]
Position(s) Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 São Paulo
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1997 São Paulo 111 (54)
1998 Portuguesa 30 (12)
1999 São Paulo 43 (6)
2000–2001 Santa Isabel 21 (0)
2002 Santos 43 (5)
2003 Independente 36 (2)
2004–2005 Malmö FF Dam 28 (3)
2006 New Jersey Wildcats 12 (13)
2007 Jersey Sky Blue 6 (1)
2007 Saad 27 (0)
2008 Botucatu 27 (4)
2009 FC Gold Pride 16 (0)
2010 Chicago Red Stars 23 (0)
2011– 2017 São José 186 (35)
2017–2021 Paris Saint-Germain 68 (0)
2021 São Paulo 4 (0)
National team‡
1995–2021 Brazil 234[4][5][6] (29)
Honours
Women's football
Representing  Brazil
FIFA Women's World Cup
Bronze medal – third place 1999 United States Team
Silver medal – second place 2007 China Team
Olympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Team
Silver medal – second place 2008 Beijing Team
South American Women's Football Championship
Gold medal – first place 1995 Brazil Team
Gold medal – first place 1998 Argentina Team
Gold medal – first place 2003 Peru Team
Gold medal – first place 2010 Ecuador Team
Gold medal – first place 2014 Ecuador Team
Gold medal – first place 2018 Chile Team
Pan American Games
Gold medal – first place 2003 Santo Domingo Team
Gold medal – first place 2007 Rio de Janeiro Team
Silver medal – second place 2011 Guadalajara Team
Gold medal – first place 2015 Toronto Team
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 26 November 2021

Miraildes Maciel Mota (born 3 March 1978), commonly known as Formiga (Portuguese: ant), is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a midfielder for São Paulo FC. She previously played for professional clubs in Sweden, the United States and France. Formiga holds many international records as a member of the Brazil women's national football team, being the only player present in all Olympic Games tournaments of women's football since the first edition at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and a record for appearing at seven different FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments.

Formiga was a member of the Brazil women's national football team for 26 years and is the most capped football player in the history of the Brazilian national teams (men's or women's) gaining her 234th and final cap in a 6–1 win over India at the 2021 International Women's Football Tournament of Manaus.[7] She's the only football player in history (men's or women's) to play in seven World Cups and seven Olympic Games.[6][5][4]

Club career[]

Born in Salvador, Formiga was born during a period when it had become illegal for women to play football in Brazil.[8]

Formiga began playing football at the age of 12. She has cited Dunga, captain of the male Brazilian team that won the 1994 FIFA World Cup as the biggest influence on her playing style.[9] She earned the nickname Formiga, which means ant in Portuguese, as a teenager because of her unselfish style of play which reminded fellow players of the way ants worked together as a colony.[10]

Formiga played in the Swedish Damallsvenskan as a member of Malmö FF Dam, and for both Santa Isabel and Saad in her homeland of Brazil.[11] Formiga was the first overall pick for the newly inaugurated Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league in the United States in the 2008 WPS International Draft, selected by FC Gold Pride of Santa Clara, California.[12] Formiga started 15 of her 16 games for Gold Pride in their inaugural season in 2009. The following season, Formiga played for Chicago Red Stars, alongside compatriot Cristiane.[13] In 2011, Formiga returned to her country to play for São José.

In 2017, she signed for Division 1 Féminine club Paris Saint-Germain.

International career[]

Formiga first played for the Brazilian women's national team at the age of 17, as part of the squad for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, playing as a substitute. The following year, during the inaugural tournament for women's football at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she became a regular starter in the Brazilian team. Formiga and Pretinha were the only two Brazilian players who participated in the first four Olympic Games tournaments of women's football, winning the silver medal in both 2004 and 2008 – both finals lost to the United States.[9] She returned in the 2012 and 2016 tournaments, setting an outright record as the only player present in the first six editions of the Olympics tournament.[14][15] She participated at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, as well.[16]

The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup was Formiga's record-breaking seventh consecutive major tournament appearance;[17] Lothar Matthäus, Antonio Carbajal, and Rafael Márquez share the record of five consecutive appearances in the men's competition.[18] Along the way, Formiga's Brazil reached third place in 1999 and were runners-up to Birgit Prinz's Germany in 2007.[9] Formiga became the competition's oldest goalscorer with a goal against South Korea on 9 June 2015.[19] She was 37 years, three months and six days old.[20]

Formiga also won the gold medal in three editions of the Pan American Games, 2003, 2007 and 2015,[9] and winning the silver in 2011 when Brazil were beaten by Canada.

Formiga retired from the Brazilian national team in 2016, but returned in 2018 to compete in the Copa América Femenina, in Chile.[21] She also appeared for Brazil at the 2019 World Cup, becoming the oldest player in the tournament's history at the age of 41.[22] On 1 December 2020, Formiga played her 200th match with Brazil in a 8–0 win over Ecuador.[23]

Formiga played in the 2020 Summer Olympics, to become the first female player to participate in seven Olympic Games.[24]

In November 2021, she announced her second retirement from the Brazilian national team.[25] On November 26, 2021, Formiga played her last match for Brazil in their 6–1 win over India at the 2021 International Women's Football Tournament of Manaus,[26][27] officially retiring from the national team.[4][5][6]

Honours[]

Club[]

São Paulo
Botucatu
São José
Paris Saint-Germain

National team[]

Individual[]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012 – List of Players Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 24 July 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 August 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
  2. ^ "Formiga". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 1 August 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  3. ^ "List of Players – Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 8 June 2015. p. 2. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  4. ^ a b c "Aos 43 anos, Formiga se aposenta da seleção brasileira". UOL (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Andrade, Henrique; Candal, Ludmila. "Aos 43 anos, Formiga é convocada para últimos jogos pela Seleção Brasileira". CNN Brasil (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  6. ^ a b c "Personalidades do mundo do futebol homenageiam Formiga em sua despedida da Seleção Brasileira". CBF (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  7. ^ Football: India battle hard in 6-1 defeat against Brazil as the legendary Formiga bids farewell Scroll.in. Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  8. ^ Gibbs, Lindsay. "41-year-old Formiga is last active Brazilian player who was alive when women's football was illegal". ThinkProgress. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d "Formiga" (in Portuguese). Universo Online. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  10. ^ Lyall, Sarah. "Formiga Isn't Going Anywhere". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  11. ^ "Formiga" (in Portuguese). Universo Online. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  12. ^ Elliot, Almond (3 February 2009). "FC Gold Pride signs No. 1 pick Formiga". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
  13. ^ "Brazilian midfielder Formiga joins Cristiane on Red Stars". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). 2 March 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  14. ^ "Record-breaking Brazil set bar high". FIFA. 25 July 2012. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  15. ^ Xinhua (13 July 2016). "Brazilian football star Formiga set to take part in her sixth Olympic Games". China.org.cn. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  16. ^ "The everlasting 'Ant' makes more history". FIFA. 21 July 2021. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  17. ^ "FIFA Player: Formiga". FIFA. Archived from the original on 8 June 2019. Retrieved 4 July 2019.
  18. ^ Kassouf, Jeff (9 June 2015). "Sawa, Formiga set record with 6th World Cups". The Equalizer. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  19. ^ "Brazil in record-breaking World Cup win against South Korea". The Guardian. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  20. ^ "Formiga, Brazil's supernatural force". FIFA. 10 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  21. ^ "Formiga volta a campo pela Seleção nesta quinta" [Formiga returns to the field for the Seleção on Thursday] (in Portuguese). Brazilian Football Confederation. 4 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
  22. ^ "Brazil's Formiga set to be first player, male or female, to play in seven World Cups". ESPN. Reuters. 16 May 2019. Retrieved 10 June 2019.
  23. ^ "Brasil 8–0 Equador". cbf.com (in Portuguese). 1 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Brazil football legends Marta and Formiga create Olympic history". CNN. 21 July 2021.
  25. ^ "Brazil veteran Formiga to retire from international soccer". AP NEWS. 9 November 2021.
  26. ^ "Formiga se despede e Brasil estreia com goleada no Torneio Internacional em Manaus". Terra (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  27. ^ "Formiga se despede da seleção brasileira com goleada em Manaus". Revista Placar (in Portuguese). Retrieved 26 November 2021.
  28. ^ Loyant, Richard (4 June 2021). "Paris SG sacré pour la première fois". Retrieved 4 June 2021.
  29. ^ "IFFHS WOMAN TEAM - CONMEBOL - OF THE DECADE 2011-2020". IFFHS. 26 January 2021.
  30. ^ "D1F - Trophées FFF : le palmarès 2017-2018". Retrieved 4 June 2021.

External links[]

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