Quote

One of our problems is the culture of Brazil which focuses on men's football. Of course we would like to change that. Maybe one day we will have a strong competitive league instead of our women footballers always having to play abroad.

Football is very masculine and, to me, a metaphor for war.

American sports are quite masculine. And football - although it's still played by men all over the world - football compared to American football is quite feminine in its artistry. And there's no padding. It's America's loss, though.

When the Olympics and World Cups come around, that's when you see the real outpouring of support that there really is for female football.

There's still prejudice and that resistance regarding women, not only on female football but in various activities. Men think that women are a bit fragile to perform some types of activities or don't have the ability and aren't strong enough.

Being a woman is of special interest only to aspiring male transsexuals. To actual women, it is simply a good excuse not to play football.

And of course in America you've got American football and baseball and all those other ball games, soccer has become a little niche that the women have kind of filled.

I think we're actually the only sport that has a mix of men and women competing together. The majority of other sports are separated by gender.

There's nothing masculine about being competitive. There's nothing masculine about trying to be the best at everything you do, nor is there anything wrong with it. I don't know why a female athlete has to defend her femininity just because she chooses to play sports.

I didn't know there was such a thing as professional soccer, but I knew that Brazil had a women's team that competed against other countries, and I wanted to be on that team.