“My brothers didn’t like that I played football with the other boys,” recalls Formiga. Apparently she should have been “at home, washing dishes.”
Thankfully for football, she never listened, her passion for the game was too strong to be deterred by nonsensical gender stereotyping. So instead, ‘the Ant’ (Formiga in Portuguese) embarked on one of the longest and most storied careers in world football, both men’s and women’s.
Miraildes Maciel Mota is one of a kind. The only player to have appeared at a staggering seven World Cups, this month the 41-year-old became the oldest player in Women's World Cup history, and she’s also the only athlete to participate in each of the six Olympic Games since women’s football became an Olympic sport in 1996,
Her seemingly everlasting journey began more than two decades ago, and she’s showing few signs of slowing down.