Brazil’s Marta performs within the Women’s World Cup Group F in opposition to Jamaica in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday. A 0-0 draw meant Brazil was out of the event.

Hamish Blair/AP

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Hamish Blair/AP

Brazil’s Marta performs within the Women’s World Cup Group F in opposition to Jamaica in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday. A 0-0 draw meant Brazil was out of the event.

Hamish Blair/AP

For one of many largest names in soccer, her reign on its largest stage has come to an finish.

Marta performed in her first World Cup at age 17. Now, at 37, the Brazilian celebrity has performed in her sixth and final.

With a 0-0 draw in opposition to Jamaica on Wednesday, Brazil crashed out of the group stage on the Women’s World Cup, its earliest elimination since 1995.

It was an final result removed from the crew’s excessive hopes after they arrived in Australia. Brazil had hoped to drag off the largest win of all, bringing house the Cup for Marta, as Argentina did in December to win a last elusive trophy for Lionel Messi. But it was to not be, in opposition to a stable Jamaica crew that is now headed to its first Round of 16.

And for Marta, Brazil’s exit at this event marks the top of her spectacular worldwide soccer profession.

Brazil ahead Marta waves after the World Cup match in opposition to Jamaica in Melbourne on Wednesday.

William West/AFP by way of Getty Images

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William West/AFP by way of Getty Images

Brazil ahead Marta waves after the World Cup match in opposition to Jamaica in Melbourne on Wednesday.

William West/AFP by way of Getty Images

She holds the all-time scoring report, girls or males, for World Cup targets – 17. A two-time Olympic silver medalist, she has been FIFA’s World Player of the Year six occasions.

She scored in every of her earlier World Cup tournaments, although not on this one. In Brazil’s group phases matches, she got here in off the bench in a win in opposition to Panama and a loss to France, earlier than beginning within the Jamaica match.

After the sport, Marta gave a real mic drop of a speech, professing that even in her worst nightmares had she not dreamed of a World Cup like this.

“But it’s just the beginning,” she mentioned, for the various proficient youthful gamers on Brazil’s squad. “I’m done here, but they’re still here.”

“I want people in Brazil to continue to have the same enthusiasm they had when the World Cup started. To continue to support. Because things don’t happen overnight.”

“I’m very happy with all that has been happening in women’s football in Brazil and in the world. Keep supporting,” she mentioned, tears glazing her eyes. “Because for them, it’s just the beginning. For me, it’s the end of the line now. “

At the top of the match, Marta shared an embrace with Jamaica’s Bunny Shaw, who put her hand over her coronary heart and informed Marta what she means to a technology. “I just told her that she’s not just an inspiration for me, but for a lot of young girls in the Caribbean and around the world,” Shaw mentioned, according to The Associated Press.

Though she made clear that this may be her final World Cup, Marta is not retiring from membership soccer — she performs for the Orlando Pride within the NWSL.

Still, this second is probably the best for Marta to think about her legacy. In a press conference a day earlier, she mirrored on how she and others had opened doorways for girls’s equality.

“When I started playing, I didn’t have an idol, a female idol. You guys didn’t show any female games,” she mentioned in Portuguese, gesturing to the media. “How was I supposed to see other players? How I was I supposed to understand that I could arrive at a national team and become a reference?”

“Today we have our own references,” she mentioned, including she is commonly stopped on the streets by mother and father who say their daughters wish to be identical to Marta. “This wouldn’t have happened if we had stopped in the first obstacles that we faced. … And it didn’t start just with me, but with a lot of the women back then.”

Twenty years in the past, nobody knew her identify, she mentioned. It was her first World Cup. This time, as she says farewell, everybody does.