Orlando Pride forward Marta has been named to the 2018 shortlist for The Best FIFA Women’s World Player of the Year award, a new iteration of the same award she previously won five times in her career.
In 2017, Marta joined the Pride in a blockbuster acquisition for the second-year club. The Brazilian legend wasted no time making her mark on the league, leading the Pride with 13 goals and nine assists en route to a place on the NWSL’s Best XI. Marta’s contributions also helped the Pride make history, as the team finished in third place on the table – a six-spot improvement from the prior year – and earned the Club’s first postseason appearance.
With Marta’s contributions, the Pride led the NWSL with 45 total goals. The Club also went on a nine-game unbeaten run to end the 2017 season, the longest point streak of any team that year.
Marta was named to the NWSL Team of the Month each month from June to September, earning September Player of the Month before culminating her year with a place on the CONCACAF Best XI.
The shortlist, composed of 10 players from around the world, were selected by a panel of women’s soccer experts based on each players’ achievements from Aug. 7, 2017 to May 24, 2018.
Fans can vote on the award at the link here. Fan voting will be evenly weighted among journalists and the coaches and captains of each national team.
The rest of the list includes two additional NWSL players in Sam Kerr (Chicago Red Stars) and Megan Rapinoe (Seattle Reign FC). Other nominees are Lucy Bronze (Olympique Lyonnais), Pernille Harder (VfL Wolfsburg), Ada Hegerberg (Olympique Lyonnais), Amandine Henry (Olympique Lyonnais), Saki Kumagai (Olympique Lyonnais), Dzsenifer Marozsan (Olympique Lyonnais) and Wendie Renard (Olympique Lyonnais).
