Marta made her return to the Brazil women’s national team at the SheBelieves Cup, and her peers from the U.S. women’s national team were quick to recognize her greatness.

“Marta’s Marta, you know?” USWNT forward Lynn Williams said Tuesday.

The 37-year-old forward tore her ACL during the NWSL preseason last March, but she has her sights set on competing in a sixth World Cup this summer.

And USWNT forward Megan Rapinoe, who has been around for the majority of the Brazilian’s career and could herself be called one of the best to play the game, pointed to Marta as just that.

“Marta’s just the greatest player, I think, that’s ever played our game,” Rapinoe said.

The owner of six Best FIFA Women’s Player awards, as well as a World Cup Golden Ball and Boot, Marta holds the overall record for the most World Cup goals scored with 17. She is also the first player ever to score at five World Cup tournaments and the first player to score in five straight Olympics.

Add in players like Debinha and Kerolin, who are just beginning their national team careers, and Brazil has a special squad headed to Australia and New Zealand in July.

“Being able to couple that old-head wisdom of Marta with players like Debinha, Kerolin, it’s just crazy. Obviously, they’ve proven it in the league and at the international level,” Rapinoe said. “They’re just really an annoying handful all the time.”

For more than 20 years now, Marta has graced crowds with her presence as a member of the Brazilian squad. But her feelings haven’t changed over the years, even as she approaches her sixth World Cup.

“I still have the passion,” Marta said. “I’m still hungry to win, doing things on the field for people to keep screaming my name. So yeah. I have the same feeling.”

She’s been on the road to recovery after tearing her ACL during an NWSL Challenge Cup match last March. And while she could have walked away from the game, Marta took her injury as a challenge.

The crowds still cheer, and Marta still has it – as evidenced by the fact that, in her first game back, she assisted on Brazil’s first goal of the SheBelieves Cup and the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over Japan.

“It’s something that makes you feel extra motivated every day,” she said. “Because of course, I say I want to do a nice show, outside (of) the field, but most of the time on the field for these people. They deserve that, and we deserve them to be here, and to enjoy this nice moment with us.”

USWNT coach Vlatko Andonovski pointed to that first game as evidence of the forward’s talent.

“She showed the first game how special she is,” he said Tuesday ahead of the USWNT’s 2-1 win against Brazil. “She comes in and makes a difference, so we expect nothing less against us. She has the quality to change the game on the spot with individual brilliance, and that’s not a secret. She has been doing that for so many years, and it’s exciting to see her back and exciting to play against her.”

But to have a career such as this, and to become known as one of the greatest of all time, doesn’t just take talent. It also takes joy.

“It doesn’t matter where you are, she is a pleasure to be around. That energy that Marta has — and she is old — that is contagious,” Brazilian manager Pia Sundhage said. “It tells me that it has nothing to do with age, it’s all about how much you love the game. And she does.”

Sweden veteran defender Magda Eriksson is hanging up her international boots to focus on her health, with the 32-year-old officially announcing her retirement from her national team on Sunday.

Eriksson will continue competing at the domestic level for her German club, Bayern Munich.

The longtime captain sat out the most recent international window due to a head injury, watching as world No. 3 Sweden fell to No. 1 Spain in the two-leg 2025 Nations League semifinals.

"It's by far the toughest decision I've ever made," Eriksson said in her social media announcement. "But I'm listening to my body and mind instead of my heart."

"I've landed in the fact that unfortunately it's a decision that has to be made."

After an 11-year career with the Swedish senior national team, Eriksson retires as a two-time Olympic silver medalist, earning those podium finishes in Rio in 2016 and at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.

Often leading Sweden through major tournaments where early domination dissolved into a third-place finish, Eriksson also helped her team eke onto the World Cup podium in both 2019 and 2023.

"It is heavy news," said Sweden head coach Tony Gustavsson after Eriksson announced her international retirement, calling her "one of our most important players for a long time."

"[Magda's] professionalism, courage, and heart have left a strong mark on the national team," he added.

Chelsea FC's £1 million gamble is paying dividends, as USWNT rising star Alyssa Thompson continued her goal-scoring momentum for the six-time defending WSL champs on Sunday.

The young forward found the back of the net in the ninth minute of the Blues' 1-1 Sunday draw with Liverpool, solidifying her status as a decisive attacking threat for her new club.

"You can see how much talent she has and the quality she brings to the team," Chelsea manager Sonia Bompastor said of Thompson earlier this month. "She's improving game after game, becoming more connected to her teammates, and understanding the way we want to play better."

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Thompson left NWSL side Angel City for Chelsea on a then-record £1 million transfer fee in early September, with the 21-year-old going on to notch three goals and one assist in four matches across both WSL and Champions League play.

"Being able to play with players that are the best in the world is an amazing opportunity," said the striker. "I want to learn, grow, and develop a lot. I feel like Chelsea is such an amazing environment to do that in."

Beyond individual accomplishment, Thompson's success underscores Chelsea's depth as they continue to hunt domestic and continental honors on a now-34 match WSL unbeaten streak — while also looking to potentially draw more USWNT stars away from the NWSL.

Women's professional baseball has landed a home base, with Front Office Sports reporting on Monday that the newly formed WPBL will play the entirety of its 2026 debut season at Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

The incoming league prioritized a neutral venue without an existing baseball team to house its four inaugural clubs — New York, Boston, LA, and San Francisco — for its first campaign, with barnstorming games also planned for each team market.

"Our sport is for everybody," WPBL co-founder Keith Stein told FOS. "It's for middle America, everybody. We thought, 'Our teams are on these two coasts, it would be good to be in the middle of the country.'"

Founded in 2024 as the first professional women's baseball outfit in the US since 1954, the WPBL will hold its first-ever draft on Thursday, with the league's four teams drawing from a pool of 120 eligible players.

The WPBL recently fielded an oversubscribed Series A investment round, telling FOS that they're closing a $3 million raise with another round planned ahead of its August 2026 season-opener.

Each 30-player team will operate under a $95,000 salary cap for the first year, with the league also covering living costs throughout the seven-week season as well as giving players a percentage of sponsorship funds.

How to watch the first-ever WPBL Draft

The 2025 WPBL Draft kicks off at 8 PM ET on Thursday, with live coverage streaming across the league's Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube channels.

Las Vegas Aces boss Becky Hammon spoke her mind last week, telling CNBC Sport that the WNBA might need "a change in leadership" for the league's CBA talks to successfully progress.

"I just think [player relations] might be too fractured at this point, but we'll see," Hammon said, while also noting that she's had only limited interactions with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

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Citing Engelbert's "private conversations...with individual players — or lack of the conversations," Hammon described the commissioner's current relationship with players as "rocky" while describing her widely criticized leadership style.

"I don't know if she can ever regret, retract, and get that traction back from those conversations," the Aces boss posited.

"When the players speak, people need to sit up and listen," she continued. "I think [Engelbert is] sitting up and listening now."

Hammon also voiced support for Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier after the five-time All-Star described the WNBA as having the "worst leadership in the world" in her now-viral 2025 exit interview.

"I completely agree with Napheesa that the players should be making more than coaches," the Las Vegas sideline leader — who publicly earns seven figures per year — continued. "They're due for a huge increase in salary, and it's got to be something that is sustainable. That's the biggest thing you got to remember, that this league is still a young league."

Ultimately, while the 2025 WNBA season is over, CBA concerns loom large over the league's current offseason and 2026 campaign, leaving Hammon and others looking to avoid a lockout as the November 30th extension deadline nears.