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Get to know all the players in the Brazil Squad that will participate at the Women's World Cup this summer.
Goalkeepers
Name: Letícia Izidoro
Date of birth: August 13th, 1994
Club: Corinthians (BRA)
When she was a child, Leticia Izidoro fought to be a football player. She started playing in defence, but her height and, it must be said, the fact she was not as talented with her feet as others, put her on the path to goalkeeping. In order to become a starter for the national team, she had to deal with some frustrations, such as not being called up to the Rio Olympics in 2016, even though she was a part of the buildup. However, Leticia knew she had to "keep performing and evolving at a high level" in order to earn her spot for 2023 and establish a place as first choice with the famous shirt. Something she won’t travel without is a speaker so she can listen to some good Brazilian funk music. At Corinthians for seven years, she has won the league three times and Copa Libertadores once.
Name: Camila Rodrigues
Date of birth: January 2nd, 2001
Club: Santos (BRA)
From the street to the Brazilian national team. Camila Rodrigues has had a challenging journey in the sport, with limited opportunities to showcase her talent. She has even had to play a lot with men’s teams as she made her way through the ranks. It is a familiar story to many girls throughout Brazil who want to take football seriously. However, the support of her family to pursue her career made all the difference from an early age. The passion instilled by her father led Camila to chase her dream until she reached Santos, in 2020, and for the first time she had the chance to represent the Brazi national team. "Being with the seleção has always been my dream,” she says. With good reflexes, Camila is ready to help Brazil in the World Cup and, moreover, she also wants to be an inspiration and role model for other girls and women.
Name: Bárbara
Date of birth: July 4th, 1988
Club: Flamengo (BRA)
One of the most experienced players in this squad, the goalkeeper is preparing for her fifth World Cup. Among the highlights so far? A Copa América title and a silver medal from the 2007 China World Cup. In addition to saving goals on the pitch, Bárbara also want to save lives. In recent years, the goalkeeper has divided her time between training and matches and being a nurse at a local hospital. "I am destined to care for people," says the 35-year-old. A penalty expert, she may be given the chance to excel in the knockout stage.
DEFENDERS
Name: Rafaelle
Date of birth: June 18th, 1991
Club: Arsenal
“Fafá”, as she is known, has a pioneering spirit. She was born in the north-eastern state of Bahia but left the city to travel the world: “Football has been with me since I was born”. She was the first foreign woman to play in China and the first Brazilian to play for Arsenal. She found out that by studying she could also play football to a high level and went to the United States, graduating as a civil engineer and improving as a player for Ole Miss – the University of Mississippi. Yet she almost didn’t stay in the game. “After graduating I was going to go into engineering because I could make more money than playing in Brazil.” One of the leaders of the Brazi team, she is able to play in a number of positions and will be a key part of their efforts in the World Cup.
Name: Kathellen Sousa
Date of birth: April 26th, 1996
Club: Real Madrid (SPA)
If most players draw inspiration from footballing greats, Sousa only needed to look at home. Her mother was a goalkeeper and has encouraged her to play ever since she was a kid: "We used to always kick a ball around in our spare time", she said. At 1.80m (5ft 11in), she is one of the tallest players in the squad and has everything a good centre-back needs: strength, agility and a good sense of concentration, always watchful of the opposition. Even though she was born in the same town as Pelé – São Vicente, in São Paulo state – she had to leave the country in order to find opportunities. After four years studying and playing in the US (New York, Kentucky and Florida) she spent two years each with Bordeaux and Internazionale, before her move to Real Madrid in 2022. Her first World Cup, four years ago, really made her name and she still admits to a sense of accomplishment when she wears the Brazil shirt.
Name: Lauren Costa
Date of birth: September 13th, 2002
Club: Madrid CFF (not Real Madrid)
Being one of the best defenders in the world is a dream Lauren doesn’t hide and, to achieve it, she started playing football very young. At four years old, she traded in her dolls to play on the streets and quickly became a promising talent at São Paulo FC. She played there for a year before being snapped up by Madrid CFF. But before that, she had to ride more than 100 km every day on the back of her father's motorcycle in order to train, even sleeping on the road. “The noise ended up hypnotising me and I fell asleep. I knew it was dangerous, but I was tired,” she said. A born leader, she was captain of the Under-20 team that won the South American Championship in 2022 in Chile and now she has moved up to the senior team.
Name: Tamires
Date of birth: October 10th, 1987
Club: Corinthians (BRA)
With more than 130 caps to her name, Tamires is all set for her third World Cup in the best spell of her career. Playing for Corinthians since 2019, she has won 11 titles and has acquired near legendary status for club and country, and is affectionately nicknamed “Mother of Fiel”, as one of the team’s most experienced players. The club’s supporters are known as the Gaviões da Fiel. She has also reinvented her game, taking on a new position at Corinthians, playing as a left midfielder. Off the pitch she is a reference too. At 21, she became a mother and since then – after a career break – Tamires has shed an important light on the challenges of being a mother in football. "I want to continue being a voice for the sport,” she says. In 2008 she played in the US W-League in Charlotte and played in Denmark for four years but has been with Corinthians for four years, winning two national league titles as well as two Copa Libertadores.
Name: Antônia
Date of birth: April 26th, 1994
Club: Levante (SPA)
If versatility was what the head coach Pia Sundhage was looking for, she found the right player in Antônia, who is part of the new generation of the Brazil national team. She was initially called up as a centre-back but was later used as a full-back and made the position her own. Antônia spent her formative years at clubs in Brazil but is in her third year playing in Spain – she had two years with Madrid CFF – and has just helped Levante to third place in the Spanish league, behind the big two of Barcelona and Real Madrid, meaning qualification for the Champions League. "Every place I've been has been important in my career," she says. She is an avid traveller, posting on Instagram regularly, so is bound to make the most of being Down Under when the team has days off.
Name: Bruninha
Date of birth: 16th June, 2002
Club: NJ/NY Gotham FC (USA)
Bruna Santos, better known as Bruninha, knows well that hard work is rewarded. She left the interior of Paraná, where she played futsal and football before opting to concentrate on the latter. She earned a move to one of Brazil's biggest clubs, Santos, in 2021, and yet did not seem negatively affected by the responsibility that came with it. Part of the new generation of Brazilian women's football, she was able to mature and develop in the youth teams before coming to the attention of the senior national team and now, even though she is only just 21, she is an essential part of the squad. She was part of the SheBelieves Cup squad this year and was another member of the successful team that won the South American Under-20 Championship last year. She left Santos in 2022 when she moved to NJ/NY Gotham. Scored her first goal for Gotham in May, showing she is a full-back who likes to get into the opposition box.
Name: Mônica
Date of birth: 21/04/1987
Club: Madrid CFF
Raised in Gravataí, Mônica’s dream of becoming a professional footballer started on the streets. She began her career at Internacional-RS, but football has taken her worldwide. She has played in Austria, USA and Australia, one of the two World Cup hosts this year. Now she is in Spain with Madrid CFF. Music is the other passion in her life and often relaxes between training sessions by playing an instrument and/or singing. Made her Brazil debut an astonishing 18 years ago, this will be her third World Cup and she was selected for the squad despite not featuring heavily during this international cycle. Clearly, Pia Sundhage wanted her experience to help the younger players in the final 23.
MIDFIELDERS
Name: Ary Borges
Date of birth: December 28th, 1999
Club: Racing Louisville (USA)
2022 was quite a year for Ary Borges. Born in Maranhão, in north-eastern Brazil, the midfielder scored the first goal for Palmeiras in the Copa Libertadores final in October 2022, part of their 4-1 thrashing of Boca Juniors. Furthermore, she averaged almost a goal every other game in the Brazilian league last year. Three months earlier she won the Copa América, when the seleção beat the hosts Colombia 1-0 in the final. She brings creativity to the midfield. Her trademark goal celebration is to make a heart with her hands and she throws in some dancing for good measure. Off the pitch, she takes a stand against any and all types of prejudice: "A social conscience is very natural for me,” she says. As for playing for her country in Australia/New Zealand, “when I was 10 I could never have imagined being where I am now. It will realise a huge dream for me,” she says.
Name: Kerolin
Date of birth: November 17th, 1999
Club: North Carolina Courage (USA)
Kerolin fell in love with the sport when she was a little girl and even played around with a pitbull that would show up on her local pitch. If only that had been her biggest challenge. Growing up with her mother, they lived on a farm in the São Paulo countryside because they could not afford to pay rent and aged 12 she was told to stop contact sport because she had osteomyelitis in a leg. Having earned rave reviews from the great Brazilian Formiga, her career suffered its biggest blow in 2019, when she failed a drugs test and was banned for two years, something in which her Palmeiras coach was also more seriously implicated. When she had served her ban in 2021 – she missed the 2019 World Cup – she moved to Madrid CFF and was recalled to the national team and she is now one of the key players of the new generation. With her dribbling ability, she has won over thousands of supporters, something also reflected in the amount of TikTok followers she has.
Name: Adriana
Date of birth: November 17th, 1996
Club: Orlando Pride (USA)
Adriana started playing in the small field that her father had near their house and she used to say that ‘‘if she couldn’t play, no one else would’’ as her father owned the field and the ball. Her audacity became her trademark. At her first club she became known as “the magician” because of the feats she performed on the field. At Corinthians in 2018, she was their top scorer and began to make a name for herself. That was confirmed when she moved to Orlando Pride in January 2023 for the highest transfer fee in Brazilian women’s football. However, her career has not been without its low moments. Injury prevented her from playing in the last World Cup and the Olympics. But now, like any good magician, she has reinvented herself to once again become a key player in her first World Cup.
Name: Luana Bertolucci
Date of birth: May 2nd, 1993
Club: Corinthians (BRA)
Luana has tremendous skill on and off the pitch. She has been a guest in a pagode (folk music) video made exclusively by women who intended to release a song that represented what they have done in the sport. She made a big move from São Paulo to Norwegian club football in 2015 and settled well at Avaldsnes, staying for three years before spending 2019 in the South Korean league. She actually missed out when the squad for that year’s World Cup was announced but an injury to Adriana meant Luana was called up. Since Pia Sundhage’s arrival as coach after that World Cup, she has been a regular and has captained the team in some games. Besides leading the midfield, the former PSG player demonstrates versatility by playing in other roles. “I tried to take advantage of every opportunity to do my best.”
Name: Duda Sampaio
Date of birth: May 18th, 2001
Club: Corinthians (BRA)
Position: Midfielder
The amateur pitches of Jequeri, in the countryside of Minas Gerais, were too small for Duda Sampaio's talent. For that reason, it didn’t take long for her to catch the eye of América-MG, her first professional team, where she made her senior debut at the age of 16. A natural No 10, Duda has a great vision of the game and is also a good finisher and her obvious talent led to a transfer to Cruzeiro, where she stayed from 2019-2021. In 2022, having moved to Internacional, in Brazil’s south, she was voted best player of the Brazilian league. She was called up for the first time in September 2020 as Pia Sundhage began the renewal of the national squad. In her personal life, Duda is one of the squad’s more shy personalities. "I joke that speaking isn't my best skill, but when I'm on the pitch, I try to speak with the ball at my feet.”
Name: Ana Vitória
Date of birth: March 6th, 2000
Club: Benfica, Portugal
Ana Vitória's maturity belies her young age but then she is used to doing things a little bit earlier than most. As a young girl she spent a long time playing among boys. Then with her team – Mixto – she became the youngest player to score in the national league championship, at the age of 15 and a half. Naturally she caught the eye of bigger teams and Corinthians came calling in 2017. Two years in São Paulo came to an end in 2019, as she moved to Benfica and became the No 10 in the women’s team. Such quick progress could not fail to catch the attention of Pia Sundhage and she made her senior debut for the national team in December 2020 while still only 18. For the seleção, she has worn the No 8 shirt, immortalised by Formiga. Now going to her first World Cup, she believes that she is starting to achieve the benefits from years of work: “This is just the beginning.” she says.
FORWARDS
Name: Marta
Date of birth: 19th february 1986
Club: Orlando Pride (USA)
Where to start with the player who can be called Your Grace? She has travelled the world to follow her dream and has opened so many paths. She is the first woman to win the world’s best player prize six times and holds the record for most goals scored in the World Cup, for men or women, with 17, although a winner’s medal still eludes her. Now, the woman regarded as one of the game’s best ever players, turns out for Orlando Pride, having also played in Sweden and, of course, at home. “I want to keep flying higher and higher,” she says. This World Cup may be her last but she has clear goals: win, pay her respects to the last generations and inspire the ones who are coming. Not that her achievements are confined to the pitch - she was appointed by the United Nations as an advocate for sustainable development goals.
Name: Debinha
Date of birth: 20 October,1991
Club: Kansas City Current (USA)
One of the most experienced players in the squad, she has gone around the world to display her talent. Brazil, Norway and China have already appreciated Debinha’s art while the United States has been her home for the past six years. Kansas City welcomed her in January. Top scorer of the Sundhage era, she has scored 58 goals for the national team in 130 games and was a nominee for Fifa’s best player award in 2022. "I see myself today in the best moment of my career," said the striker. If on the pitch, she can wow defenders with her skill, away from it she behaves like an idol. Her charisma and friendliness are her bond with the supporters. A fan of tattoos, Debinha is ready to leave one more mark on the women’s game at this World Cup.
Name: Bia Zaneratto
Date of birth: December 17th, 1993
Club: Palmeiras (BRA)
Nicknamed "The Empress" by supporters, who compare her style to the former Brazil striker Adriano "The Emperor". Quite a different outcome from the future her mother had in mind – she wanted Bia to be a ballerina. Her strength, speed and quality of dribbling have made her a key piece of the national team's attack. Going into her third World Cup, she believes that Brazil are among the favourites. "We're going to be champions", she said. This will not be the first time she has been Down Under. At the age of 14 she was the youngest player in the squad for the first Under-17 World Cup in 2008. Three years later she was playing for the senior team at the World Cup. She always carries a little bit of her family on the pitch. If she scores her first World Cup goal, she'll celebrate by making an L with her hand, a homage to her grandmother Luzia - who has sadly passed away - but is still her "eternal fan".
Name: Geyse
Position: Forward
One of six children and raised by her mother in a village in north-east Brazil, she started playing football on the beach with boys. That gave her the appetite for bigger and better things and saw her join Corinthians and then head to Europe in 2017, where she has been ever since. Early goalscoring exploits led to comparisons with Marta. In 2019 she scored 51 goals in 29 games at Benfica. With Madrid CFF she scored 20 goals and became the first South American to be the top scorer in La Liga, leading to a move to Barcelona in 2022 and a La Liga and Champions League double this year. As her career took off, she fulfilled an old wish and bought her mother and siblings a new house, where the whole family now lives. As she says: “I may earn millions [in the future], but it will always be my favorite place.”
Name: Gabi Nunes
Date of birth: March 10th, 1997
Club: Madrid CFF
“Marta in the future”. Gabi Nunes’s password for her social media account as a child pointed out which direction she wanted to go, no doubt influenced by her father and brother, who also tried to become professionals. She represented the seleção in the Under-20 World Cup in 2016, finishing joint top scorer with five goals as Brazil lost in the quarter-finals. She only received the silver boot five years later, given to her by Marta. They now play alongside each other for the national team, “a feeling that I will carry with me for the rest of my life,” Gabi said. She spent five years with Corinthians before joining Madrid CFF in 2021 and is part of Brazil’s wealth of attacking options at this World Cup.
Name: Andressa Alves
Date of birth: 10 November, 1992
Club: Roma (ITA)
From improvised pitches on the streets of Franco da Rocha (in São Paulo), to being one of the biggest names in European football, Andressa is seriously important to the national team. In 2016, she was the first Brazilian to play for Barcelona. Three years later, she joined Roma and this summer was part of the team that won Serie A. Yet she was out of favour for a while until after the Tokyo Olympics, and then scored the only Brazil goal against England in the finalissima at Wembley. Despite making history in Europe, Andressa Alves never hid her dream of playing for Corinthians. “It's my dream to wear that shirt,” she said. Married for more than two years to the former player Fran, an Olympic silver medallist in 2008, they steal the spotlight by making irreverent videos on the internet.
Name: Nycole Raysla
Date of birth: 26 March, 2000
Club: Benfica (PT)
Despite being a newcomer to the World Cup stage, Nycole is familiar with the expectations that come with wearing the national team shirt. She played in the U-17 and U-20 sides before playing her debut for the senior team in November 2020 against Ecuador. After time in the north-east of Brazil and the capital Brasilia – her birthplace – she moved to Portugal in 2019 where she has made a big splash. With Benfica all this time, she has won almost everything, with the Champions League one remaining goal and now she is on a contract that takes her up to 2026. With a more reserved and shy personality compared with most of her teammates, Nycole's true passion lies in showcasing her talent through dribbles and speed on the field. She dreams of becoming an example to younger footballers, saying: "I hope to inspire new generations."
- Written by Redação Fut das Minas for The Guardian
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