July 21, 2022 • 41 mins
Come with us to the most futebol-mad country in all the world, as we follow the trail of the magicians, some you may have heard of – and some you haven’t. We’ll head to Santos FC, where 1000 girls from all over the country show up to the open tryout, dreaming of playing for the most storied club in Brazilian history: the land of the King, Pele, and now the Queen: Marta.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
It's the twenty sixteen Olympics in Brazil. At first, the
Brazilian men's futie bowl team is doing poorly and the
women's is putting on a show. When the men failed
(00:24):
to score against traditionally weak opponents Iraq and South Africa,
the fans start to chant Marta, Marta, Marta on the
back of their brazil jerseys. Above the number ten. Kids
cross out Neymar and scrawl Martyr in magic marker. This
is not just to make a statement. If you want
(00:45):
a shirt with martyr on the back, this is the
only way to do it. The sports stores, t shirt
shops and street vendors who walk up and down Copacabana
carry endless Neymars, but no one has a Martyr. This
is shocking for a global fugibole icon to not have
a jersey with her name on it in her own country.
(01:05):
Marta has won FIFA World Player of the Year six times,
and yet you can't buy a shirt with her name
on it. How is that even possible. This is one
of the questions Gwen who actually played for Santos FC,
set out to answer when she wrote her book Under
the Lights and in the Dark, which inspired this docuseries.
(01:26):
So come with us to the most fugibole mad country
in all the land. As we follow the trail of
the magicians. Some you may have heard of, some you haven't.
We'll head to Santos, the most storied club in Brazilian history,
where the women attempt to win the hearts of their country.
I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is hustle Rule. This episode
(01:49):
is Brazil's number ten. Cry in the beginning, smile in
the end one monte. Nobody now of it to Gwin
(02:12):
to understand Brazil's relationship with footchiebo feminino, Here's some history.
It first appeared during the traveling circuses of the nineteen twenties,
for women's soccer matches took place alongside magic tricks. By
ninety the women's game had spread like wildfire, a thousand
reported matches a day, but then Brazil banned footchieba feminino
(02:36):
in nineteen forty one. The law, which remained in place
until nineteen eighty one, stated that women will not be
allowed to practice sports which are considered incompatible to their
feminine nature. Enter Sisle Lima d Amore, known as CC.
She was born in Espanada in nineteen sixty seven and
(02:58):
she was one of Brazil's first footie off from Anino magicians.
There's a generation of us out there who swooned over her,
Yet she disappeared before anybody knew what happened to her,
and when she was growing up, it was illegal for
her to play. It was a crazy law. I was
born in a small town and not of Brazil, so
(03:19):
of course I ignore completely. But it was complicated because
my parents, especially my dad, he didn't like the idea
of me playing soccer because I was a girl. One day,
I was so upset that I decided, okay, so since
they are not let me play, so I went to
(03:40):
my room, I grabbed my dolls and I took my
doll's head off. So that's when I started basically play
soccer with my doll's head. My older sister she was
getting already, you know, upset, because she started like, okay,
I have to hide all my dolls as well. So
my dad one day after, I think he saw all
(04:00):
my dogs with our heads and he's like, this is insane.
Finally he decided to give my first soccer ball. Probably
was the best day of my life, to be honest,
When he finally recognized this girl was born with a gift.
I remember going to the backyard and my goodness, and
(04:24):
I remember hearing him talk to my mom and my
mom said, do you know what you're creating over here?
And he's like, let's see. I've been saying no for
the past couple months, so let's see it. Soccer for
me is magical. It is hard to put in words,
but that's where I could be sissy, you know, the
(04:47):
little girl with a huge, big dream that it was
to show something special. By the time she's sixteen years old,
Cecie gets a first all up to the national team
and she's given jersey number ten, the number reserved for
the gods of her country. I remember crying like a baby.
(05:11):
Bay was the best feeling because I'd say, oh my gosh,
number ten, number ten, Zequel I had butterflies, for sure.
It was crazy. It was crazy and as it was
a dream come true. In World Cup CC, number ten
(05:36):
was my favorite. She was all my friends favorite. She
was this tiny fairy with a shaved head who took
these astonishing little touches and played balls we would never
have thought of. In World Cup she wowed the entire
World and won the Golden Boot, tied for the most
goals scored. The next year, she captains the Olympic team,
(05:59):
and in two thousand and one, she's invited to play
in the new US Pro League had for the Bay
Areas Cyber Ray as well the US as assistant leader CC.
What can you say about her but one of the
best playmakers in the world. That very same year, the
Salpollo Fucci Ball Federation also started a league, but what
at first seemed like progress was actually more like going backwards.
(06:21):
To play you had to have long hair ponytails. Only.
Keep in mind, this isn't the nineteen eighties, this is
two thousand and one. This is after Mia Hamm has
already arrived on scene and changed the game in the
United States, and the girl should wear ponytails, makeup, blah
(06:42):
blah blah. And I couldn't believe that Obur Confederation was
going that far and I decline. So there was a
lot of players that they could not participate on that tournament.
I thought this was not okay. Back in the US,
she leads the Bay air As Cyber Raised to the
US Pro League Championship. She's at the top of her game,
(07:05):
and wants more respect for FOOTIEBLL Feminino. Of course I
became more vocal, you know, fighting more for our rights
that are structure financially especially, and I don't think that
was it was okay with Confederation right after the Olympics.
(07:25):
Pay a high price because I was no call anymore
for the national team, even though I thought I was
playing my best soccer. Let's take this in for a second, CC,
quite possibly the best in the world, is cut from
the team, no explanation. I remember watching the World Cup
(07:47):
in two thousand and three and looking for her, scanning
the field, like where is she? Where is CC? Like
everyone else, I assumed she'd retired, but that wasn't what happened.
I think it was physically mentally on the best shape
of my life, to be honest, and I think this
(08:08):
is the only thing that I too unto today bothered
me because I didn't have a chance to close the
chapter with the national team the wade I think I deserve.
I always try to leave everything on the field and
make my country proud. What's extra infuriating for both the
fans and the players is that two thousand and three
(08:31):
is their Marta via da Silva, the five four phenomenon
from Deisiachos arrived on the national team scene, which means
we would have had CC playing alongside Marta exactly can
you imagine? And just like that, Brazil's first footieball feminino
(08:51):
magician fades out, so Marta ccs number ten successor picks
up the fight to when the heart of their country.
She was already crazy, crazy good. You knew right away
at that two thousand and three World Cup Marta was astonishing.
I sat on my coffee table in Pensacola, Florida, getting
(09:18):
as close to the screen as I possibly could, unable
to believe what I was seeing. Her Jinga, the Brazilian
word for some blend of magic and imagination with the
ball is extraordinary on its own, but she has another power.
She scores. Many Brazilian male stars have been gifted in
(09:39):
the art of the dribble, but only one ended the
dribbling sprays with goals play. Brazil's greatest goal scorer of
all time. Now nearly fifty years later, a new goal
sorcerer had arrived. In her first six games with the
national team, Marta scored six team goals. That's two point
(10:02):
five goals per game in her first World Cup. Her
performance feels like a meteor shower. Every touch and explosion
of magic, and anyone watching would a test to have
witnessed something rare. But in Brazil, no one was watching.
Here's Brazilian sports journalist Frederico Battalia. In two thousand and three,
(10:29):
the ratings of the FBI were very small because women's
soccer was not wildly known. It was not publicized to
hear in Brazil. Two years after Martha lit up the field,
I got an email Brazilian team looking for American goal scorer,
even though I was an outside mid who almost never
(10:51):
scored goals. I emailed back, yes me because I couldn't
resist the chance to go to Santos, home of Plea,
and I had the memory of Marta burnt into my mind.
I wanted to go to this country that had created her,
(11:11):
the most dazzling player I'd ever witnessed. That summer, no
one came to our games or even new a women's
side existed. We lived two hours outside of Santos. We
hitchhike to practice, shared our field with a horse, and
washed our jerseys by hand. We often trained on the
beach and when there were high tides, we ran sprints
(11:34):
on the main highway. But what blew my mind the
most was that even though she was widely known in
the US, the Brazilian general public had never heard of Marta.
Anytime I talked to anyone outside of my team, the
taxi drivers, the waiters, the sie vendors, the kids on
the beach, I had to know, do you know who
(11:57):
Marta is? The answer was always no. It would be
two more years before that changed. In June two and seven,
Brazil hosts the Pan American Games, which means Martha will
play for the national team on home soil. This is
the first chance her country has to witness her in person.
(12:26):
They will talk on your fun. Martha scored five goals
against Canada. She scored four goals against Ecuador. In the
final match against the US, she scored two goals. Not
only that, she had two assists and they got these
(12:47):
historic scored defeating the US five nil, ensuring the gold medal.
Stories started to spread of the girl who scored as
many goals as play and who does so in equal
at least spectacular fashion. Here's Brazilian national team player on
Dressa Alves, who watched those games when she was fifteen
(13:08):
years old, seven in the Pan American Games in Rio
de Janeiro. She was incredible, the things she did, how
she played. I couldn't imagine that someone would be able
to do that. First of all, I was like, I
couldn't believe that women's soccer was on TV, and seeing
the girls right, it made me believe in my dream.
(13:31):
And I told my dad that I would be there someday,
that he would see me on TV. Months later, in
the two thousand and seven Women's World Cup, she again
electrifies in the semifinal, once again facing the United States.
Martet back He'll juggles the ball around one side of
(13:51):
the defender, Pirouett's around the other, then slots the ball
into the back of the net, the most spectacular, ridiculous
goal you've ever seen in your life. All of Brazil
takes notice. The morning after the game, I was back
(14:14):
in Brazil making a documentary called Pelata, the Portuguese word
for pickup games, and this time Marta and consequently Fuccibo
femanino is everywhere. The headlines read Marta, Marta, Marta. In
the neighborhood Bars, dozens gathered around television's watching the highlights
(14:35):
as they waited for their coffee to brew in the morning, reacting, whistling, appreciating.
Two years earlier, no one had heard of her. Now
I no longer needed to ask about her, because everyone
from the grandpas to the little girls were chanting her name.
(15:06):
But in spite of the hunger to watch her play,
to make her living, Marta couldn't stay in our home country.
She had to continue playing for teams in far away
places like Sweden and the United States. This meant Brazilian
still had no way to witness her play professionally in person. Still,
even with Marta gone, that World Cup performance left an aftershock,
(15:31):
a lingering magic that's spread beyond her, which brings us
back to Santo SEFC, the club I played with three
summers earlier. Seeing the reaction to Marta and the women's
team in the World Cup, Santos management was suddenly thinking
maybe we should pay a bit more attention to the
women's side. On the Santos website, the club posts an
(15:54):
invitation to an open tryout for the women's team. Here's Clayton,
my old coach, who had pretty much single handedly created
the women's team at Santos na uh nintern etch. So
(16:15):
we had a call on the internet for the tryouts,
and in two days we had eleven hundred applications. From
the eleven hundred girls that applied, about nine hundred and
eighty came. At the time, in two thousand and seven,
the internet was not that sophisticated here in Brazil. We
had just email, so we also received many physical letters
(16:36):
of girls that wanted to apply, and they would come
from all corners of Brazil, from the northern region, from
the northeastern region, from the Amazon region, like thousands of
miles away from Santos. Some of them couldn't afford to
cover the traveling expenses, and it was really buzzing with
commotion because when I was about to arrive at eight am,
(16:57):
that was the time scheduled for the trial, there were
like two thousand people in front of the gate because
they were like a thousand girls plus their families and
their coaches. From the thousand girls, they were used to
playing pickup matches, they were used to playing on the
streets at school. They had no formal coaching. Our team
(17:20):
was quite strong, so we had to hire people who
were ready to become professionals if they were skilled only
and they had talent to be developed. This was not
enough for us. So from the thousand girls, just one
of them became a professional soccer player. That one player
(17:40):
was Catlin Wiggers, who traveled over twelve hours from Rio
Fortuna in the state of Santa Catarina. She was fourteen
years old. Ever since I was a child, I heard
the stories. My grandmother was a supporter of Santa's club.
There was NOIV in her time, so she had a
(18:01):
small radio, a battery radio, and she would listen to
all of the matches on the radio. She would use
the radio to listen to Pelz goals, Continus goals. She
will say before My grandmother played and my mom also
(18:24):
played soccer. This passion was something that came down from
generation to generation. So I heard the stories and then
I fell in love with Sensus ever since I was
a child, because I wanted to live a little bit
of my grandmother's dream. So I got there with my suitcase.
I said goodbye to all of my friends in my city.
(18:45):
When the doors opened to me, I grabbed and made
the dream come true. The talent at Santos is undeniable
and like Catlin, each of them has a story of
finding a way to play. Here's Erika Cristiano Dos Santos,
known on the field only as Erica. As a kid,
(19:07):
she used to take three different buses just to get
to practice from her home in South Paula does every day,
I would have to earn the money for the bus,
and my mother would bake cakes and pies and candies
and I would sell them at school and with that money,
I would then buy the ticket. Sometimes when I did
(19:30):
not sell anything, I didn't have the money, and my
mother asked, do you have the money today for the
bus to go to the practice, And then I said, yes, yes,
it's your with me. Okay, it's a lie. You know.
My father is a bus driver. I knew all the
other drivers, you know, and I would go under the
(19:52):
turn still because I asked my the bus drivers who
are my father's friend, let me go under the turn
still has said yes, yes, you can go. My hair
was really lone montox and then I feel my hair
passing through the floor like this, you know. But I
didn't care. The only thing that I wanted us to
play soccer. I wanted to follow my dreams. So the
(20:16):
santist does come from all over Brazil and they dazzle
with their flowing, beautiful football. The city comes to their
games to see what they refer to locally as football
arte football art, largely because of the beauty of the
Santos footie ball. Clayton is named head coach of the
Brazilian national team, and this is the moment when he
(20:40):
convinces Martha to come home. In the press conference announcing
Martha's arrival, the Santos Football Club president says, Santos Santos
already had play and marked the history of world men's football.
Now with the arrival of Marta, we will also mark
(21:02):
a time in the history of women's football. We hope
that she'll repeat the steps of the King. Marta adds
from I'm wearing number ten, that was Play's number. The
expectations are really high and I'm hoping to have the
same success as him. It will be like a dream
(21:25):
for me from my mom to be there. Now that
I'm closer and it's possible. Catlin, the one out of
the thousand who made the team, is now seventeen and
teammates with Marta, and she's pretty much beside herself so
my dream has always been, you know, playing next to her,
(21:46):
playing with her. So when I saw Marta next to me,
I couldn't speak to her. I was speechless. She's the
queen here in Brazil. Marta has come to play for
Copa Libertadores the South American Final, which is a huge deal.
It's the champions League of South and Central America. Santos
hasn't won since play was with the team back in
(22:09):
nineteen sixty three. It's been over forty years. The women
are playing in the famous Villa Belmiro stadium, something we
were never allowed to do when I was on the
team five years earlier. Back then, we had only a
dozen or so curious onlookers show up at our games,
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but now twelve thou people are here to see Feminino.
This is the strength of Marte, the force of the
best in the world. She was playing for Santos. Marta
had the opportunity to see her mother watching her play
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in the stadium. She had never had this opportunity before
and also had never seen all of the fans cheering
for her. It was very, very moving. That was like
fulfilling a dream for her. At a press conference, Martha
says what I'm saying. It's a very special moment for
me to play in Brazil with my mom here, because
(23:12):
my mom has never had the opportunity to see me play.
I left my house when I was fourteen, and she's
never seen me play. So it was very emotional. After
Martha the Queen scores, she runs her mother and the
crowd and makes a heart shape with her hands. Her
mother cries and says, that's my daughter. She scored, she
(23:36):
did it. Come here, my baby, And here's Erika's reaction.
And before that, nobody really cared, you know, nobody really
watched our matches. And at the Libertades it was so crowded,
(23:57):
you know, it was backed with people. Then people were
on the streets set when we started to grow in
the women's soccer even men's teams, of fans, the parents,
the grand parents, children, and everybody knew us. They would
cause better names. They would never forget this moment. And
(24:18):
while you couldn't buy a national team jersey with Martha's
name on it, you could buy a Santos Marta jersey.
We made the jersey with her name and her number
number ten, and we also made a man's cut because
men were also demanding to wear her jersey, so it
was a men's fit with Martha's name on the back
(24:40):
of the jersey. It's sold like hotcakes and with each
game the crowd grew. Martha would cry in the dressing
rooms because we had audiences coming to the stadium of
twenty five thousand people, twenty thousand people, and they would
(25:01):
all scream for her. Santa scores showers of goals. Not
only do they have Marta, they have Christianity too, who
(25:21):
is spectacular. She scores five goals in a game, another
five goals in the next game. They sailed through to
the championship. That Villa bel Meda stadium was full. It
(25:41):
was crowded, so we felt the vibration, the love of
the supporters. I went into the second half of the game.
That's when I played, and I could fulfill another dream.
I scored the goal of the final match for Liberta,
and it was MARTA's past. I was there in the
final match of the liber getting a pass from of
(26:04):
the Queen. So these were two dreams coming true in
a single moment. It was a magical moment in my life.
Paper some thos scum. After the final When the reporters
(26:29):
talked to Martha, she cries, he I think this win
is for her mom, for the Santos nation, and for
all of the Brazilian people who came. It's like a dream,
she says. I don't believe it. It's so emotional, and
I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart
(26:51):
all the people who came to the games, all who
came to lift up Focibo Feminino. I pray to God
that this key is happening, that it goes on for
the girls that remain here in Brazil after this season. Santos,
we had won that cup in nineteen sixty three with
(27:13):
the least team, so we took a long time for
that to happen again. The trophy finally came back to Santos. Meanwhile,
that same year, two thousand and nine, another Brazilian magician
is making their Santos FC professional debut, Seventeen year old
neymar Da Silva Santos Jr. The gifted teenager, will score
(27:35):
fourteen goals and show fabulous promise in spite of a
lackluster season by the men's side Santo. At that time
in two thousand and ten, Santos had the best players
in the world. Pellet was an icon. He was also
a spectator. We could see him in the stadium. We
had Martha, the best in the world, and we had
(27:56):
Neymar who was becoming one of the best in the world.
So we had all of the icons that year. In
two thousand and eleven, Marta comes back again for another
Copa Libertadores, which they will again win. Marta will score
twenty six goals in fourteen games. By now, on the
(28:16):
men's side, Naymar is a shining star, the leading scorer
as he takes the men to their first Copa Libertadores
championship since pal In December of that year, Marta and
Namar played together in a charity match. After the game,
Neymar sees Marta walk by and his face lights up.
(28:38):
He interrupts the reporter to call out to her. The
pair high five, then lace their hands together. In their faces.
You can see they are mutually awe struck. When the
reporter said, here we are with two crack players, crack
being the ultimate compliment in Portuguese, Marta responded shyly, He's
(29:00):
more crack. He says, Na Na, She's the best in
the world. Just when you think you found FOOTI ball utopia.
Then come the rumors the new Santos president is considering
cutting the women's side. Here's Rika and Catlin being cut
(29:25):
off if you were winning everything, So that's the way
it's lend. And even so we kept on working, you know,
winning cups, winning trophies and titles. But those rumors become reality.
The new Santos president announced the women's team was done.
(29:48):
I wept, I cried a lot. My childhood dreams simply disappeared.
And the press conference announcing that they were cutting the team,
Erica cried, we played because we love to play. We
just want to play. Over protests, the people rebelled against
(30:09):
this decision. People graffited the walls of the club stadium.
People could not resign to the idea of the fact
that the women's team was coming to an end because
of the political turmoil, because after all, Santos had been
the best in the America's So this caused a lot
of demonstration and marches out in the streets at the president.
(30:31):
Fuzzy the president had this meeting with us. He said
that he loved women's software. He adored us because he
had a daughter who really loved sockers. Everything that a
president usually says at these occasions. You know, it's just
because we don't have the sponsors now for the girls.
(30:55):
You know, they don't want to support you anymore. And
some of the directors are also unhappy because the costs
are too high and we could not understand what this
is coming from. At the time, the women's team was
asked its entire operating budget was one point five million
(31:18):
hayi's a year, which in two thousand and twelve was
around eight hundred and twenty six thousand dollars. The club
was can currently paying Neymar a million hayes a month,
or around five hundred and fifty eight thousand two months
of Neymar's salary would run the women's team for more
than a year. You know, what are the expenses? One
(31:44):
sponsorship at the time paid for the whole pay roll.
He would always always mention, but the directors, the members
of the board, you know, oh, it's really complex. But
Rika was not ready to give up. She asks the president,
if we can get sponsors, can you continue to the
(32:04):
women's soccer will we? He said yes, yes, Well, well
then go on. If you get the sponsors, then yes,
the whole thing feels like a movie. The protagonists faced
with finding huge sums of money to stave off disaster.
Eric is not someone who is easily dissuaded. She's used
to hustling, even if that means fighting the fight. After
(32:28):
she's forced to move back home with her mom and
Saalpolloa mine, my mother was all the time with me.
She was like calling the banks, calling stores, Please don't
you want to help the girls? But that was on
the other phone talking to other people, other players. I
didn't want to eat, I wouldn't sleep, I don't give up.
(32:50):
I go to the end. Everybody was saying that the
media was saying that that's why women soccer was being
canceled because Neymar it attracted all the sponsors. All the
sponsors wanted to sponsor Namar. In a press conference, when
a reporter asked Nymar if he felt bad that his
high salary had resulted in the dissolution of the women's team,
(33:13):
president Louise Alvero grabbed the mic before Neymar could respond. Later,
Neymar would say, of course I was sad. If it's
possible to help all help not just me. I think
all the players could help just a little so that
Fujiball Feminino can return. The women have won titles for
us too, and the women's team takes him at his word.
(33:40):
So the first thing that I thought is he likes
women's soccer. He has always liked us. And it's not
that like we are nobody's you know, we have always
been friends. So he would always watch our matches. We
were playing the base category as it's time in Santos,
(34:01):
and what was talked. We were getting the same bus.
We were playing in uh places that were very close
to each other. And the first thing that I thought, well,
he's very powerful. Maybe they can help us somehow. I
was not asking for money. I was asking for an idea,
(34:22):
a guidance to help women succer not to be canceled.
And Namur call me and they said, Erica, we are
going to help you stay calm. And I would say,
how can we stay calm? Everybody is unemployed, we don't
know what to do. And then he told me, my
father is going to get in touch with you and
(34:42):
he's going to solve whatever it's necessary. He's going to
help you. So she and a teammate or talk with
Namar's father. Prakilly follow Edica, because there's no bodies either. Keith.
I told him everything that happened, and he said, Erica,
(35:04):
you cannot go away. And it's not because of name are.
That's because the president he doesn't want women's team anymore.
The board doesn't want anymore. But you must fight. And
then I told him we don't have the power. The
president says they need sponsors. Can you help me? And
then he said, yes I can. I'm going to get
(35:25):
your sponsors for you. You You girls in four days. Called
me back and then he said, Erica, I managed to
get a bank as a sponsor, and also clothes brands
are close brands. I think it for four or five sponsors.
That would add up to even more of what we
(35:46):
had in the past. He said, Erica, it's going to
work out. That's going to work. Rest assured. When I
went to the president with the news, smiling, and he
was said, Erica, this is not going to work, you know,
because the members of the board and he was like this,
and he said, well, it's good to be hard. I
(36:08):
don't know to have a women's team because many members
of the board they don't like women soccer, you know.
And then I was crying and I said, why did
you lie to me? I asked him, why did you
like me? And my mother was with me, you know,
in the room, and my mother she almost attacked him,
you know, she always flew in his neck because she
(36:31):
was like indignant, you know how he was wearing that
face and telling us on our faces. And I said,
that's not possible, that that's what I'm hearing. And I
felt like that someone had pulled the rug from my feet.
So the women not only won everything championships out of
(36:52):
the city, they also raised a million hay eyes to
bring back Footibo Feminino. And yet that's still told no,
you cannot have a team, you cannot play here. And
as for Marta, the greatest player in the world, this
is not the only time her team has gone under
Her very first team, Vasco da Gamma, it folded her
(37:14):
second team, Minas cher Ice folded. When she went to
the US and led her l A Soul to the championship.
It too folded her second U S team, the FC
Gold Pride, she also led to a championship, and they
too folded. Her third US Pro team, the Western New
York Flash, also wins the Championship, and then the entire
(37:36):
league folds. She heads to Sweden to play with tour
So and at the end of they too fold. That's
seven teams that have gone under the best player in
the world struggle to find a team that could stay afloat.
But that's not where the story ends. They're simply foul.
(37:57):
Always tellman their fews. Any people will throw stones on
your way, you know, big stones, small stones. If you
want to stumble on those stones and fall to the ground,
or if you want to get these stones, put them
in your pocket and build your castle. Don't give up.
Go to the end. Erica has gone on to play
(38:19):
all over the world and just won the Brazil Championship
with Corinthians. Three years after they cut the team. Santos
FC gets a new president and one of the first
things he does is reinstate the women's team. Catlin, the
fifteen year old kid who traveled a dozen hours with
the suitcase to have a chance to play for her
grandma's team. She returned to Santos tortually became a star.
(38:43):
She had records on top of records, and she's one
of the best forward players that we have today in Brazil.
She goes on to become the leading goal scorer in
Santos FC women's history, joining Pele as one of the
only players to score more than a hundred goals. To
mark the Asian, they painted a huge mural of her face.
It stretches across the wall of the training center beside Pele.
(39:09):
I was leaving the training session, walking by the wall,
and I looked up and I wondered, is that me?
That's my face on the wall? What is it doing there?
And that's me? So my friends began screaming, you know,
celebrating together with me. I cried. So every day I
go by the wall and I see my grandmother's idols
bill called China, and I'm right next to them. And
(39:33):
Martha She's found her home with the Orlando Pride. Two
is her sixth season with the team. It's the longest
she's gone without a team folding on her. The Brazilian
women continue to fight for the game they love in
when they are knocked out of the World Cup, and
emotional Martyr spoke to the camera, get a myth, my
(39:57):
it's wanting more. It's training more, it's taking care of
yourself more. It's being ready to play ninety plus thirty minutes.
This is what I ask of the girls. There's not
going to be a martyr forever. There's not going to
be a Christianity forever. There's not going to be a
for Meger forever. The women's game depends on you to survive,
(40:18):
So think about that. Value it more. Cry in the
beginning so you can smile in the end. That may
be the entire journey through Fujibul Feminino in Brazil, summed
up in eleven words. Cry in the beginning so you
can smile in the end. Join us next week for
the final episode of Hustle Rule, Shape Shifters, Side Hustlers
(40:41):
and the New guard Staff for nobn Haustle Rule is
a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners, Observatory Audio,
(41:06):
UP Media, and I Heart Radio, written and directed by
Gwendolyn oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah Waddingham, and is
based on the book Under the Lights and in the Dark,
written by Gwendolyn oxen Um. The executive producers are Justin
Biskin from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bo Alligan from Range Media Partners,
and Shaan Titan from iHeart Radio. Co written by Ruth Hilton,
(41:28):
Produced by Gwendolen oxen Um, Ruth Hilton and Jordana Glick Franzheim.
Co produced by Jimmy Jellinek and Jared Goodstadt, Edited by
Carry Colfield, Eric sound design and mixing by Jeremiah's Immerman.
Music by Jeff Peters and Bill mart Theme song performed
by a One La Flair. You'll find more podcasts from
iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(41:49):
wherever you get your podcasts. Good
It's the twenty sixteen Olympics in Brazil. At first, the
Brazilian men's futie bowl team is doing poorly and the
women's is putting on a show. When the men failed
(00:24):
to score against traditionally weak opponents Iraq and South Africa,
the fans start to chant Marta, Marta, Marta on the
back of their brazil jerseys. Above the number ten. Kids
cross out Neymar and scrawl Martyr in magic marker. This
is not just to make a statement. If you want
(00:45):
a shirt with martyr on the back, this is the
only way to do it. The sports stores, t shirt
shops and street vendors who walk up and down Copacabana
carry endless Neymars, but no one has a Martyr. This
is shocking for a global fugibole icon to not have
a jersey with her name on it in her own country.
(01:05):
Marta has won FIFA World Player of the Year six times,
and yet you can't buy a shirt with her name
on it. How is that even possible. This is one
of the questions Gwen who actually played for Santos FC,
set out to answer when she wrote her book Under
the Lights and in the Dark, which inspired this docuseries.
(01:26):
So come with us to the most fugibole mad country
in all the land. As we follow the trail of
the magicians. Some you may have heard of, some you haven't.
We'll head to Santos, the most storied club in Brazilian history,
where the women attempt to win the hearts of their country.
I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is hustle Rule. This episode
(01:49):
is Brazil's number ten. Cry in the beginning, smile in
the end one monte. Nobody now of it to Gwin
(02:12):
to understand Brazil's relationship with footchiebo feminino, Here's some history.
It first appeared during the traveling circuses of the nineteen twenties,
for women's soccer matches took place alongside magic tricks. By
ninety the women's game had spread like wildfire, a thousand
reported matches a day, but then Brazil banned footchieba feminino
(02:36):
in nineteen forty one. The law, which remained in place
until nineteen eighty one, stated that women will not be
allowed to practice sports which are considered incompatible to their
feminine nature. Enter Sisle Lima d Amore, known as CC.
She was born in Espanada in nineteen sixty seven and
(02:58):
she was one of Brazil's first footie off from Anino magicians.
There's a generation of us out there who swooned over her,
Yet she disappeared before anybody knew what happened to her,
and when she was growing up, it was illegal for
her to play. It was a crazy law. I was
born in a small town and not of Brazil, so
(03:19):
of course I ignore completely. But it was complicated because
my parents, especially my dad, he didn't like the idea
of me playing soccer because I was a girl. One day,
I was so upset that I decided, okay, so since
they are not let me play, so I went to
(03:40):
my room, I grabbed my dolls and I took my
doll's head off. So that's when I started basically play
soccer with my doll's head. My older sister she was
getting already, you know, upset, because she started like, okay,
I have to hide all my dolls as well. So
my dad one day after, I think he saw all
(04:00):
my dogs with our heads and he's like, this is insane.
Finally he decided to give my first soccer ball. Probably
was the best day of my life, to be honest,
When he finally recognized this girl was born with a gift.
I remember going to the backyard and my goodness, and
(04:24):
I remember hearing him talk to my mom and my
mom said, do you know what you're creating over here?
And he's like, let's see. I've been saying no for
the past couple months, so let's see it. Soccer for
me is magical. It is hard to put in words,
but that's where I could be sissy, you know, the
(04:47):
little girl with a huge, big dream that it was
to show something special. By the time she's sixteen years old,
Cecie gets a first all up to the national team
and she's given jersey number ten, the number reserved for
the gods of her country. I remember crying like a baby.
(05:11):
Bay was the best feeling because I'd say, oh my gosh,
number ten, number ten, Zequel I had butterflies, for sure.
It was crazy. It was crazy and as it was
a dream come true. In World Cup CC, number ten
(05:36):
was my favorite. She was all my friends favorite. She
was this tiny fairy with a shaved head who took
these astonishing little touches and played balls we would never
have thought of. In World Cup she wowed the entire
World and won the Golden Boot, tied for the most
goals scored. The next year, she captains the Olympic team,
(05:59):
and in two thousand and one, she's invited to play
in the new US Pro League had for the Bay
Areas Cyber Ray as well the US as assistant leader CC.
What can you say about her but one of the
best playmakers in the world. That very same year, the
Salpollo Fucci Ball Federation also started a league, but what
at first seemed like progress was actually more like going backwards.
(06:21):
To play you had to have long hair ponytails. Only.
Keep in mind, this isn't the nineteen eighties, this is
two thousand and one. This is after Mia Hamm has
already arrived on scene and changed the game in the
United States, and the girl should wear ponytails, makeup, blah
(06:42):
blah blah. And I couldn't believe that Obur Confederation was
going that far and I decline. So there was a
lot of players that they could not participate on that tournament.
I thought this was not okay. Back in the US,
she leads the Bay air As Cyber Raised to the
US Pro League Championship. She's at the top of her game,
(07:05):
and wants more respect for FOOTIEBLL Feminino. Of course I
became more vocal, you know, fighting more for our rights
that are structure financially especially, and I don't think that
was it was okay with Confederation right after the Olympics.
(07:25):
Pay a high price because I was no call anymore
for the national team, even though I thought I was
playing my best soccer. Let's take this in for a second, CC,
quite possibly the best in the world, is cut from
the team, no explanation. I remember watching the World Cup
(07:47):
in two thousand and three and looking for her, scanning
the field, like where is she? Where is CC? Like
everyone else, I assumed she'd retired, but that wasn't what happened.
I think it was physically mentally on the best shape
of my life, to be honest, and I think this
(08:08):
is the only thing that I too unto today bothered
me because I didn't have a chance to close the
chapter with the national team the wade I think I deserve.
I always try to leave everything on the field and
make my country proud. What's extra infuriating for both the
fans and the players is that two thousand and three
(08:31):
is their Marta via da Silva, the five four phenomenon
from Deisiachos arrived on the national team scene, which means
we would have had CC playing alongside Marta exactly can
you imagine? And just like that, Brazil's first footieball feminino
(08:51):
magician fades out, so Marta ccs number ten successor picks
up the fight to when the heart of their country.
She was already crazy, crazy good. You knew right away
at that two thousand and three World Cup Marta was astonishing.
I sat on my coffee table in Pensacola, Florida, getting
(09:18):
as close to the screen as I possibly could, unable
to believe what I was seeing. Her Jinga, the Brazilian
word for some blend of magic and imagination with the
ball is extraordinary on its own, but she has another power.
She scores. Many Brazilian male stars have been gifted in
(09:39):
the art of the dribble, but only one ended the
dribbling sprays with goals play. Brazil's greatest goal scorer of
all time. Now nearly fifty years later, a new goal
sorcerer had arrived. In her first six games with the
national team, Marta scored six team goals. That's two point
(10:02):
five goals per game in her first World Cup. Her
performance feels like a meteor shower. Every touch and explosion
of magic, and anyone watching would a test to have
witnessed something rare. But in Brazil, no one was watching.
Here's Brazilian sports journalist Frederico Battalia. In two thousand and three,
(10:29):
the ratings of the FBI were very small because women's
soccer was not wildly known. It was not publicized to
hear in Brazil. Two years after Martha lit up the field,
I got an email Brazilian team looking for American goal scorer,
even though I was an outside mid who almost never
(10:51):
scored goals. I emailed back, yes me because I couldn't
resist the chance to go to Santos, home of Plea,
and I had the memory of Marta burnt into my mind.
I wanted to go to this country that had created her,
(11:11):
the most dazzling player I'd ever witnessed. That summer, no
one came to our games or even new a women's
side existed. We lived two hours outside of Santos. We
hitchhike to practice, shared our field with a horse, and
washed our jerseys by hand. We often trained on the
beach and when there were high tides, we ran sprints
(11:34):
on the main highway. But what blew my mind the
most was that even though she was widely known in
the US, the Brazilian general public had never heard of Marta.
Anytime I talked to anyone outside of my team, the
taxi drivers, the waiters, the sie vendors, the kids on
the beach, I had to know, do you know who
(11:57):
Marta is? The answer was always no. It would be
two more years before that changed. In June two and seven,
Brazil hosts the Pan American Games, which means Martha will
play for the national team on home soil. This is
the first chance her country has to witness her in person.
(12:26):
They will talk on your fun. Martha scored five goals
against Canada. She scored four goals against Ecuador. In the
final match against the US, she scored two goals. Not
only that, she had two assists and they got these
(12:47):
historic scored defeating the US five nil, ensuring the gold medal.
Stories started to spread of the girl who scored as
many goals as play and who does so in equal
at least spectacular fashion. Here's Brazilian national team player on
Dressa Alves, who watched those games when she was fifteen
(13:08):
years old, seven in the Pan American Games in Rio
de Janeiro. She was incredible, the things she did, how
she played. I couldn't imagine that someone would be able
to do that. First of all, I was like, I
couldn't believe that women's soccer was on TV, and seeing
the girls right, it made me believe in my dream.
(13:31):
And I told my dad that I would be there someday,
that he would see me on TV. Months later, in
the two thousand and seven Women's World Cup, she again
electrifies in the semifinal, once again facing the United States.
Martet back He'll juggles the ball around one side of
(13:51):
the defender, Pirouett's around the other, then slots the ball
into the back of the net, the most spectacular, ridiculous
goal you've ever seen in your life. All of Brazil
takes notice. The morning after the game, I was back
(14:14):
in Brazil making a documentary called Pelata, the Portuguese word
for pickup games, and this time Marta and consequently Fuccibo
femanino is everywhere. The headlines read Marta, Marta, Marta. In
the neighborhood Bars, dozens gathered around television's watching the highlights
(14:35):
as they waited for their coffee to brew in the morning, reacting, whistling, appreciating.
Two years earlier, no one had heard of her. Now
I no longer needed to ask about her, because everyone
from the grandpas to the little girls were chanting her name.
(15:06):
But in spite of the hunger to watch her play,
to make her living, Marta couldn't stay in our home country.
She had to continue playing for teams in far away
places like Sweden and the United States. This meant Brazilian
still had no way to witness her play professionally in person. Still,
even with Marta gone, that World Cup performance left an aftershock,
(15:31):
a lingering magic that's spread beyond her, which brings us
back to Santo SEFC, the club I played with three
summers earlier. Seeing the reaction to Marta and the women's
team in the World Cup, Santos management was suddenly thinking
maybe we should pay a bit more attention to the
women's side. On the Santos website, the club posts an
(15:54):
invitation to an open tryout for the women's team. Here's Clayton,
my old coach, who had pretty much single handedly created
the women's team at Santos na uh nintern etch. So
(16:15):
we had a call on the internet for the tryouts,
and in two days we had eleven hundred applications. From
the eleven hundred girls that applied, about nine hundred and
eighty came. At the time, in two thousand and seven,
the internet was not that sophisticated here in Brazil. We
had just email, so we also received many physical letters
(16:36):
of girls that wanted to apply, and they would come
from all corners of Brazil, from the northern region, from
the northeastern region, from the Amazon region, like thousands of
miles away from Santos. Some of them couldn't afford to
cover the traveling expenses, and it was really buzzing with
commotion because when I was about to arrive at eight am,
(16:57):
that was the time scheduled for the trial, there were
like two thousand people in front of the gate because
they were like a thousand girls plus their families and
their coaches. From the thousand girls, they were used to
playing pickup matches, they were used to playing on the
streets at school. They had no formal coaching. Our team
(17:20):
was quite strong, so we had to hire people who
were ready to become professionals if they were skilled only
and they had talent to be developed. This was not
enough for us. So from the thousand girls, just one
of them became a professional soccer player. That one player
(17:40):
was Catlin Wiggers, who traveled over twelve hours from Rio
Fortuna in the state of Santa Catarina. She was fourteen
years old. Ever since I was a child, I heard
the stories. My grandmother was a supporter of Santa's club.
There was NOIV in her time, so she had a
(18:01):
small radio, a battery radio, and she would listen to
all of the matches on the radio. She would use
the radio to listen to Pelz goals, Continus goals. She
will say before My grandmother played and my mom also
(18:24):
played soccer. This passion was something that came down from
generation to generation. So I heard the stories and then
I fell in love with Sensus ever since I was
a child, because I wanted to live a little bit
of my grandmother's dream. So I got there with my suitcase.
I said goodbye to all of my friends in my city.
(18:45):
When the doors opened to me, I grabbed and made
the dream come true. The talent at Santos is undeniable
and like Catlin, each of them has a story of
finding a way to play. Here's Erika Cristiano Dos Santos,
known on the field only as Erica. As a kid,
(19:07):
she used to take three different buses just to get
to practice from her home in South Paula does every day,
I would have to earn the money for the bus,
and my mother would bake cakes and pies and candies
and I would sell them at school and with that money,
I would then buy the ticket. Sometimes when I did
(19:30):
not sell anything, I didn't have the money, and my
mother asked, do you have the money today for the
bus to go to the practice, And then I said, yes, yes,
it's your with me. Okay, it's a lie. You know.
My father is a bus driver. I knew all the
other drivers, you know, and I would go under the
(19:52):
turn still because I asked my the bus drivers who
are my father's friend, let me go under the turn
still has said yes, yes, you can go. My hair
was really lone montox and then I feel my hair
passing through the floor like this, you know. But I
didn't care. The only thing that I wanted us to
play soccer. I wanted to follow my dreams. So the
(20:16):
santist does come from all over Brazil and they dazzle
with their flowing, beautiful football. The city comes to their
games to see what they refer to locally as football
arte football art, largely because of the beauty of the
Santos footie ball. Clayton is named head coach of the
Brazilian national team, and this is the moment when he
(20:40):
convinces Martha to come home. In the press conference announcing
Martha's arrival, the Santos Football Club president says, Santos Santos
already had play and marked the history of world men's football.
Now with the arrival of Marta, we will also mark
(21:02):
a time in the history of women's football. We hope
that she'll repeat the steps of the King. Marta adds
from I'm wearing number ten, that was Play's number. The
expectations are really high and I'm hoping to have the
same success as him. It will be like a dream
(21:25):
for me from my mom to be there. Now that
I'm closer and it's possible. Catlin, the one out of
the thousand who made the team, is now seventeen and
teammates with Marta, and she's pretty much beside herself so
my dream has always been, you know, playing next to her,
(21:46):
playing with her. So when I saw Marta next to me,
I couldn't speak to her. I was speechless. She's the
queen here in Brazil. Marta has come to play for
Copa Libertadores the South American Final, which is a huge deal.
It's the champions League of South and Central America. Santos
hasn't won since play was with the team back in
(22:09):
nineteen sixty three. It's been over forty years. The women
are playing in the famous Villa Belmiro stadium, something we
were never allowed to do when I was on the
team five years earlier. Back then, we had only a
dozen or so curious onlookers show up at our games,
(22:29):
but now twelve thou people are here to see Feminino.
This is the strength of Marte, the force of the
best in the world. She was playing for Santos. Marta
had the opportunity to see her mother watching her play
(22:50):
in the stadium. She had never had this opportunity before
and also had never seen all of the fans cheering
for her. It was very, very moving. That was like
fulfilling a dream for her. At a press conference, Martha
says what I'm saying. It's a very special moment for
me to play in Brazil with my mom here, because
(23:12):
my mom has never had the opportunity to see me play.
I left my house when I was fourteen, and she's
never seen me play. So it was very emotional. After
Martha the Queen scores, she runs her mother and the
crowd and makes a heart shape with her hands. Her
mother cries and says, that's my daughter. She scored, she
(23:36):
did it. Come here, my baby, And here's Erika's reaction.
And before that, nobody really cared, you know, nobody really
watched our matches. And at the Libertades it was so crowded,
(23:57):
you know, it was backed with people. Then people were
on the streets set when we started to grow in
the women's soccer even men's teams, of fans, the parents,
the grand parents, children, and everybody knew us. They would
cause better names. They would never forget this moment. And
(24:18):
while you couldn't buy a national team jersey with Martha's
name on it, you could buy a Santos Marta jersey.
We made the jersey with her name and her number
number ten, and we also made a man's cut because
men were also demanding to wear her jersey, so it
was a men's fit with Martha's name on the back
(24:40):
of the jersey. It's sold like hotcakes and with each
game the crowd grew. Martha would cry in the dressing
rooms because we had audiences coming to the stadium of
twenty five thousand people, twenty thousand people, and they would
(25:01):
all scream for her. Santa scores showers of goals. Not
only do they have Marta, they have Christianity too, who
(25:21):
is spectacular. She scores five goals in a game, another
five goals in the next game. They sailed through to
the championship. That Villa bel Meda stadium was full. It
(25:41):
was crowded, so we felt the vibration, the love of
the supporters. I went into the second half of the game.
That's when I played, and I could fulfill another dream.
I scored the goal of the final match for Liberta,
and it was MARTA's past. I was there in the
final match of the liber getting a pass from of
(26:04):
the Queen. So these were two dreams coming true in
a single moment. It was a magical moment in my life.
Paper some thos scum. After the final When the reporters
(26:29):
talked to Martha, she cries, he I think this win
is for her mom, for the Santos nation, and for
all of the Brazilian people who came. It's like a dream,
she says. I don't believe it. It's so emotional, and
I'd like to thank from the bottom of my heart
(26:51):
all the people who came to the games, all who
came to lift up Focibo Feminino. I pray to God
that this key is happening, that it goes on for
the girls that remain here in Brazil after this season. Santos,
we had won that cup in nineteen sixty three with
(27:13):
the least team, so we took a long time for
that to happen again. The trophy finally came back to Santos. Meanwhile,
that same year, two thousand and nine, another Brazilian magician
is making their Santos FC professional debut, Seventeen year old
neymar Da Silva Santos Jr. The gifted teenager, will score
(27:35):
fourteen goals and show fabulous promise in spite of a
lackluster season by the men's side Santo. At that time
in two thousand and ten, Santos had the best players
in the world. Pellet was an icon. He was also
a spectator. We could see him in the stadium. We
had Martha, the best in the world, and we had
(27:56):
Neymar who was becoming one of the best in the world.
So we had all of the icons that year. In
two thousand and eleven, Marta comes back again for another
Copa Libertadores, which they will again win. Marta will score
twenty six goals in fourteen games. By now, on the
(28:16):
men's side, Naymar is a shining star, the leading scorer
as he takes the men to their first Copa Libertadores
championship since pal In December of that year, Marta and
Namar played together in a charity match. After the game,
Neymar sees Marta walk by and his face lights up.
(28:38):
He interrupts the reporter to call out to her. The
pair high five, then lace their hands together. In their faces.
You can see they are mutually awe struck. When the
reporter said, here we are with two crack players, crack
being the ultimate compliment in Portuguese, Marta responded shyly, He's
(29:00):
more crack. He says, Na Na, She's the best in
the world. Just when you think you found FOOTI ball utopia.
Then come the rumors the new Santos president is considering
cutting the women's side. Here's Rika and Catlin being cut
(29:25):
off if you were winning everything, So that's the way
it's lend. And even so we kept on working, you know,
winning cups, winning trophies and titles. But those rumors become reality.
The new Santos president announced the women's team was done.
(29:48):
I wept, I cried a lot. My childhood dreams simply disappeared.
And the press conference announcing that they were cutting the team,
Erica cried, we played because we love to play. We
just want to play. Over protests, the people rebelled against
(30:09):
this decision. People graffited the walls of the club stadium.
People could not resign to the idea of the fact
that the women's team was coming to an end because
of the political turmoil, because after all, Santos had been
the best in the America's So this caused a lot
of demonstration and marches out in the streets at the president.
(30:31):
Fuzzy the president had this meeting with us. He said
that he loved women's software. He adored us because he
had a daughter who really loved sockers. Everything that a
president usually says at these occasions. You know, it's just
because we don't have the sponsors now for the girls.
(30:55):
You know, they don't want to support you anymore. And
some of the directors are also unhappy because the costs
are too high and we could not understand what this
is coming from. At the time, the women's team was
asked its entire operating budget was one point five million
(31:18):
hayi's a year, which in two thousand and twelve was
around eight hundred and twenty six thousand dollars. The club
was can currently paying Neymar a million hayes a month,
or around five hundred and fifty eight thousand two months
of Neymar's salary would run the women's team for more
than a year. You know, what are the expenses? One
(31:44):
sponsorship at the time paid for the whole pay roll.
He would always always mention, but the directors, the members
of the board, you know, oh, it's really complex. But
Rika was not ready to give up. She asks the president,
if we can get sponsors, can you continue to the
(32:04):
women's soccer will we? He said yes, yes, Well, well
then go on. If you get the sponsors, then yes,
the whole thing feels like a movie. The protagonists faced
with finding huge sums of money to stave off disaster.
Eric is not someone who is easily dissuaded. She's used
to hustling, even if that means fighting the fight. After
(32:28):
she's forced to move back home with her mom and
Saalpolloa mine, my mother was all the time with me.
She was like calling the banks, calling stores, Please don't
you want to help the girls? But that was on
the other phone talking to other people, other players. I
didn't want to eat, I wouldn't sleep, I don't give up.
(32:50):
I go to the end. Everybody was saying that the
media was saying that that's why women soccer was being
canceled because Neymar it attracted all the sponsors. All the
sponsors wanted to sponsor Namar. In a press conference, when
a reporter asked Nymar if he felt bad that his
high salary had resulted in the dissolution of the women's team,
(33:13):
president Louise Alvero grabbed the mic before Neymar could respond. Later,
Neymar would say, of course I was sad. If it's
possible to help all help not just me. I think
all the players could help just a little so that
Fujiball Feminino can return. The women have won titles for
us too, and the women's team takes him at his word.
(33:40):
So the first thing that I thought is he likes
women's soccer. He has always liked us. And it's not
that like we are nobody's you know, we have always
been friends. So he would always watch our matches. We
were playing the base category as it's time in Santos,
(34:01):
and what was talked. We were getting the same bus.
We were playing in uh places that were very close
to each other. And the first thing that I thought, well,
he's very powerful. Maybe they can help us somehow. I
was not asking for money. I was asking for an idea,
(34:22):
a guidance to help women succer not to be canceled.
And Namur call me and they said, Erica, we are
going to help you stay calm. And I would say,
how can we stay calm? Everybody is unemployed, we don't
know what to do. And then he told me, my
father is going to get in touch with you and
(34:42):
he's going to solve whatever it's necessary. He's going to
help you. So she and a teammate or talk with
Namar's father. Prakilly follow Edica, because there's no bodies either. Keith.
I told him everything that happened, and he said, Erica,
(35:04):
you cannot go away. And it's not because of name are.
That's because the president he doesn't want women's team anymore.
The board doesn't want anymore. But you must fight. And
then I told him we don't have the power. The
president says they need sponsors. Can you help me? And
then he said, yes I can. I'm going to get
(35:25):
your sponsors for you. You You girls in four days. Called
me back and then he said, Erica, I managed to
get a bank as a sponsor, and also clothes brands
are close brands. I think it for four or five sponsors.
That would add up to even more of what we
(35:46):
had in the past. He said, Erica, it's going to
work out. That's going to work. Rest assured. When I
went to the president with the news, smiling, and he
was said, Erica, this is not going to work, you know,
because the members of the board and he was like this,
and he said, well, it's good to be hard. I
(36:08):
don't know to have a women's team because many members
of the board they don't like women soccer, you know.
And then I was crying and I said, why did
you lie to me? I asked him, why did you
like me? And my mother was with me, you know,
in the room, and my mother she almost attacked him,
you know, she always flew in his neck because she
(36:31):
was like indignant, you know how he was wearing that
face and telling us on our faces. And I said,
that's not possible, that that's what I'm hearing. And I
felt like that someone had pulled the rug from my feet.
So the women not only won everything championships out of
(36:52):
the city, they also raised a million hay eyes to
bring back Footibo Feminino. And yet that's still told no,
you cannot have a team, you cannot play here. And
as for Marta, the greatest player in the world, this
is not the only time her team has gone under
Her very first team, Vasco da Gamma, it folded her
(37:14):
second team, Minas cher Ice folded. When she went to
the US and led her l A Soul to the championship.
It too folded her second U S team, the FC
Gold Pride, she also led to a championship, and they
too folded. Her third US Pro team, the Western New
York Flash, also wins the Championship, and then the entire
(37:36):
league folds. She heads to Sweden to play with tour
So and at the end of they too fold. That's
seven teams that have gone under the best player in
the world struggle to find a team that could stay afloat.
But that's not where the story ends. They're simply foul.
(37:57):
Always tellman their fews. Any people will throw stones on
your way, you know, big stones, small stones. If you
want to stumble on those stones and fall to the ground,
or if you want to get these stones, put them
in your pocket and build your castle. Don't give up.
Go to the end. Erica has gone on to play
(38:19):
all over the world and just won the Brazil Championship
with Corinthians. Three years after they cut the team. Santos
FC gets a new president and one of the first
things he does is reinstate the women's team. Catlin, the
fifteen year old kid who traveled a dozen hours with
the suitcase to have a chance to play for her
grandma's team. She returned to Santos tortually became a star.
(38:43):
She had records on top of records, and she's one
of the best forward players that we have today in Brazil.
She goes on to become the leading goal scorer in
Santos FC women's history, joining Pele as one of the
only players to score more than a hundred goals. To
mark the Asian, they painted a huge mural of her face.
It stretches across the wall of the training center beside Pele.
(39:09):
I was leaving the training session, walking by the wall,
and I looked up and I wondered, is that me?
That's my face on the wall? What is it doing there?
And that's me? So my friends began screaming, you know,
celebrating together with me. I cried. So every day I
go by the wall and I see my grandmother's idols
bill called China, and I'm right next to them. And
(39:33):
Martha She's found her home with the Orlando Pride. Two
is her sixth season with the team. It's the longest
she's gone without a team folding on her. The Brazilian
women continue to fight for the game they love in
when they are knocked out of the World Cup, and
emotional Martyr spoke to the camera, get a myth, my
(39:57):
it's wanting more. It's training more, it's taking care of
yourself more. It's being ready to play ninety plus thirty minutes.
This is what I ask of the girls. There's not
going to be a martyr forever. There's not going to
be a Christianity forever. There's not going to be a
for Meger forever. The women's game depends on you to survive,
(40:18):
So think about that. Value it more. Cry in the
beginning so you can smile in the end. That may
be the entire journey through Fujibul Feminino in Brazil, summed
up in eleven words. Cry in the beginning so you
can smile in the end. Join us next week for
the final episode of Hustle Rule, Shape Shifters, Side Hustlers
(40:41):
and the New guard Staff for nobn Haustle Rule is
a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners, Observatory Audio,
(41:06):
UP Media, and I Heart Radio, written and directed by
Gwendolyn oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah Waddingham, and is
based on the book Under the Lights and in the Dark,
written by Gwendolyn oxen Um. The executive producers are Justin
Biskin from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bo Alligan from Range Media Partners,
and Shaan Titan from iHeart Radio. Co written by Ruth Hilton,
(41:28):
Produced by Gwendolen oxen Um, Ruth Hilton and Jordana Glick Franzheim.
Co produced by Jimmy Jellinek and Jared Goodstadt, Edited by
Carry Colfield, Eric sound design and mixing by Jeremiah's Immerman.
Music by Jeff Peters and Bill mart Theme song performed
by a One La Flair. You'll find more podcasts from
iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
(41:49):
wherever you get your podcasts. Good
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