21 December 2009 - The Award Train Keeps Rolling For Marta

On 21 December 2009, Brazilian forward Marta was named FIFA's Player of the Year for a record fourth time. And she didn't stop there.

Born in 1986, Marta began her professional career in 2000 with Vasco da Gama. In 2003, she moved to Sweden to play for Umeå IK, where she won her first silverware by capturing four league titles, one Swedish Cup, and the 2003-04 UEFA Women's Cup. She scored three goals over the two legs of the UEFA Women's Cup Final to beat Frankfurt and their star player, 2003 FIFA World Player of the Year Birgit Prinz. Prinz repeated as World Player of the Year in 2004 and again in 2005 to set the record at three.

In 2006, Marta won her first Player of the Year award after her third straight season as the Swedish league's top scorer. She won it again in 2007 and 2008, both times over second-place finisher Prinz.

After the third one, Marta moved to the United States to play for the Los Angeles Sol and led them to the league's best record at the end of the regular season. In the WPS playoffs, they advanced to the Final before losing to Sky Blue FC. Marta was the league's top scorer and duly won her record fourth Player of the Year award.

Since then, she went on to win the award in 2010 to stretch the record to five and is in contention for a sixth when the 2011 award is announced on 9 January.