By: Emma Xing

She reigns in the sport of soccer. She has played in six world cups. She is Martha Thomas, the Brazilian superstar!

Martha played her first world cup when she was 17. Now she is playing her sixth and last world cup at age 37.

When the team arrived in Australia for Martha’s last game, they had high hopes to bring home the gold for her. However, their opponent Jamaica was a strong team. They entered the first round of 16 in the game.

Martha holds the all-time scoring record, women or men, for World Cup goals, a total of 17. A two-time Olympic silver medalist, and she has been FIFA’s World Player of the Year six times.

But in this World Cup, she didn’t score any goals. This year, her team won over Panama, but lost to France, before they competed with Jamaica. But after the game, Martha gave a postgame speech, saying she had never imagined a World Cup to go as terrible as this, even worse than her nightmares.

But she told the other young players that she may be done, but the others are just getting started.

At the end of the match, Martha embraced Bunny Shaw, who comforted Marta and told her what she means to a generation. Shaw explained that Martha was her inspiration and for a lot of young girls in the Caribbean and around the world.

But even though Martha isn’t fully retired and still plays for the Orlando Pride in NWSL in soccer, just not competitive, this moment was a great deal to the end Martha’s legacy.

And she brought tears to the audience and herself as she said goodbye to the World Cup.