Brazilian Football Legend Marta has won FIFA Best Woman Player of the year award for the sixth time at the FIFA Awards last night in London.

Marta Vieira da Silva, fondly called as Marta, captained her country Brazil to Copa America glory. She also holds the record for the most goals scored in the FIFA Women’s World Cup with 15 strikes from 17 appearances. Interestingly, she now has more FIFA Player of the Year awards than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, both widely regarded as two of the greatest men in football. Luka Modric of Croatia Wins FIFA Best Male Player of the Year 2018, Pips Mohamed Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Marta plays for Orlando Pride, a professional women's soccer team based in Orlando, Florida. she has been nicknamed "Pelé in skirts" by Brazilian legend Pelé himself. She says that she was born to play soccer. Her passion for football started at a very young age of around seven or eight years in her native place Dois Riachos, one of Brazil’s poorest towns. Her love for football was criticised as people thought it was not right for girls to play the game at that time. But courageously, against all odds, she continued to play her favourite game, eventually making her the most successful and the greatest female football player of all time.

Marta saw off fierce competition from Lyon duo Ada Hegerberg and Dzsenifer Marozsan to win this prestigious award. In the men's category, Croatia's Luka Modric was awarded the FIFA Men's Footballer of the year award.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 25, 2018 12:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).