Érika

Érika

Personal information
Full name	Érika Cristiano dos Santos[1]
Date of birth	4 February 1988
Place of birth	São Paulo, Brazil
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7 ^1⁄2 in)[2]
Playing position	Defender / Forward
Club information
Current team	Paris Saint-Germain
Number	8
Youth career
	Associação Sabesp
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2003–2004	Juventus
2005–2008	Santos
2009	FC Gold Pride	7	(0)
2009	Santos
2010	Foz Cataratas
2011	Santos
2012–2015	Centro Olímpico
2015–	Paris Saint-Germain
National team^‡
	Brazil U-20
2006–	Brazil	49	(10)
Honours Olympic Games 2008 Beijing Team
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18:32, 20 December 2014 (UTC). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 12:38, 1 June 2015 (UTC)

Érika Cristiano dos Santos (born 4 February 1988), commonly known as Érika, is a Brazilian footballer who plays for French club Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazilian women's national team. Versatile Érika played as a forward for her clubs and Brazil's youth teams, but mainly as a central defender or "volante" (defensive midfielder) for the senior national team. She was part of Brazil's silver medal-winning team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and also played at the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2012 London Olympics.

At club level Érika enjoyed three successful spells with Santos and was hurt when the male parent club disbanded the female section in 2012. She also spent the 2009 season with American Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) franchise FC Gold Pride. After the demise of Santos, Érika and nine other former Santos players agreed to join Centro Olímpico.

Club career

At six years old, Érika became the first female pupil at Marcelinho Carioca's football school. She then played futebol de salão for Associação Sabesp, where the rules were changed to allow her to compete against adults at the age of 12. Érika's mother arranged a place at Clube Atlético Juventus, where she began playing outdoors and quickly came to the attention of national youth team selectors and leading women's club Santos.^[3] With Santos Érika won the Campeonato Paulista in 2007 and the 2008 Copa do Brasil.

Érika was picked by FC Gold Pride, a team in the new Women's Professional Soccer from Santa Clara, California, in the 2008 WPS International Draft. The team's assistant coach was Sissi, Érika's compatriot and mentor. After appearing in seven FC Gold Pride games during 2009, Érika was made a free agent at the season's close by coach Albertin Montoya.^[4]

She returned to Santos and was part of the club's 2009 Copa Libertadores Femenina-winning team in November 2009, scoring twice in the 9–0 final win over UAA. The following month Santos retained the Copa do Brasil, after beating Botucatu 3–0 in the final at Estádio do Pacaembu.^[5]

In early 2012 Santos' board of directors scrapped the women's section, to save money after the club handed their male player Neymar a gigantic new contract. Érika was surprised and hurt by the development. She cried at the press conference announcement and publicly contemplated a contract offer from a South Korean club.^[6]

With Neymar's assistance, Érika and the displaced Santos players secured around $1,500,000 in external sponsorship. But Santos' board refused to reverse their decision, claiming that the women's team cost $2,000,000 a year to run and provided no financial return. Instead ten of the players including Érika moved to Centro Olímpico.^[7]

In late 2013, Érika suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury which kept her out of football for around ten months, until September 2014.^[8] In August 2015 Érika and compatriot Cristiane made a double transfer to French UEFA Women's Champions League contenders Paris Saint-Germain Féminines.^[9]

International career

Aged 15, Érika played for Brazil at the 2004 FIFA U-19 Women's World Championship. She also featured at the 2006 edition of the event, which had changed to under-20 from under-19, as Brazil came third. Still eligible in 2008, Érika scored two goal in Brazil's run to the quarter-finals and was named in the tournament all-star team. She had been joint top goal scorer with seven goals at the 2008 South American Under-20 Women's Football Championship, which served as the qualifying tournament.^[10]

Érika at the 2012 Olympics

In November 2006 Érika made her senior international debut in Brazil's 6–1 South American Women's Football Championship win over Bolivia at Estadio José María Minella, Mar del Plata.^[11] She was withdrawn from Brazil's 2007 Pan American Games squad two days before the tournament, with injured ankle ligaments.^[3]

At the 2008 edition of the Olympic Football Tournament, Érika replaced Andréia Rosa in central defence after the first match. She remained in the team and collected a silver medal when Brazil lost the final 1–0 after extra time to the United States.

In November 2010, Érika scored Brazil's first goal in a 5–0 2010 South American Women's Football Championship win over Colombia which ensured qualification for the following year's FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany.^[12]

At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Érika scored Brazil's opening goal in a 3–0 win over Equatorial Guinea. Brazil then lost a controversial quarter-final on penalties to the United States after a 2–2 draw. American players, supporters and media were unhappy that Érika appeared to exaggerate an injury during extra time to use up valuable seconds. Érika was shown the yellow card and then Abby Wambach equalised in time which the referee had added on for the contentious injury.^[13]

Érika went to her second Olympic football tournament at London 2012. FIFA.com described her as one of the team's key players.^[14] Amidst allegations of a broken down bus plot,^[15] Brazil lost their final group E game 1–0 to hosts Great Britain before a record crowd of 70,584 at Wembley Stadium. That meant a quarter-final against World Cup holders Japan, who eliminated Brazil by winning 2–0 at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium.

She returned to the national team for the 2014 Torneio Internacional de Brasília de Futebol Feminino, after almost two years away with injuries. She recalled playing in every outfield position for the national team, except on the wings, and was happy to keep fitting in where required.^[16] On the eve of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup, Érika sustained a knee injury and was replaced in the squad by Rafinha.^[17]

Career statistics

International

At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup

As of 12 February 2016.^[11][18][19]

Brazil national team
Year	Apps	Goals
2006	5	0
2007	0	0
2008	10	1
2009	6	2
2010	8	1
2011	9	5
2012	11	1
2013	0	0
2014	0	0
2015	5	1
2016	0	0
Total	54	10

International goals

	Key (expand for notes on “international goals” and sorting)
Location	Geographic location of the venue where the competition occurred Sorted by country name first, then by city name
Lineup	Start – played entire match on minute (off player) – substituted on at the minute indicated, and player was substituted off at the same time off minute (on player) – substituted off at the minute indicated, and player was substituted on at the same time (c) – captain Sorted by minutes played
#	NumberOfGoals.goalNumber scored by the player in the match (alternate notation to Goal in match)
Min	The minute in the match the goal was scored. For list that include caps, blank indicates played in the match but did not score a goal.
Assist/pass	The ball was passed by the player, which assisted in scoring the goal. This column depends on the availability and source of this information.
penalty or pk	Goal scored on penalty-kick which was awarded due to foul by opponent. (Goals scored in penalty-shoot-out, at the end of a tied match after extra-time, are not included.)
Score	The match score after the goal was scored. Sorted by goal difference, then by goal scored by the player's team
Result	The final score. Sorted by goal difference in the match, then by goal difference in penalty-shoot-out if it is taken, followed by goal scored by the player's team in the match, then by goal scored in the penalty-shoot-out. For matches with identical final scores, match ending in extra-time without penalty-shoot-out is a tougher match, therefore precede matches that ended in regulation
aet	The score at the end of extra-time; the match was tied at the end of 90' regulation
pso	Penalty-shoot-out score shown in parenthesis; the match was tied at the end of extra-time
	Light-purple background color – exhibition or closed door international friendly match
	Light-yellow background color – match at an invitational tournament
	Light-orange background color – Olympic women's football qualification match
	Light-blue background color – FIFA women's world cup qualification match
	Orange background color – Olympic women's football tournament
	Blue background color – FIFA women's world cup final tournament
NOTE: some keys may not apply for a particular football player

Goal	Date	Location	Opponent	#	Score	Result	Competition
1.goal 1	2008-06-15	Suwon	Italy	1.1	1–0	2–1	2008 Peace Queen Cup
2.goal 2	2009-12-13	São Paulo	Mexico	1.1	2–0	3–2	Torneio Internacional 2009
3.goal 3	2010-11-19	Latacunga	Colombia	1.1	1–0	5–0	Copa America 2010
4.goal 4	2011-07-06	Frankfurt	Equatorial Guinea	1.1	1–0	3–0	2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
5.goal 5	2011-12-08	São Paulo	Italy	1.1	1–1	5–1	Torneio Internacional 2011
6.goal 6	2011-12-11	São Paulo	Chile	1.1	1–0	4–0	Torneio Internacional 2011
7.goal 7	2011-12-18	São Paulo	Denmark	2.1	1–1	2–1	Torneio Internacional 2011
8.goal 8				2.2	2–1
9.goal 9	2011-12-16	São Paulo	Denmark	1.1	1–0	2–1	Torneio Internacional 2012
10.goal 10	2015-12-01	Cuiabá	New Zealand	1.1	2–1	5–1	Friendly game

Personal life

Érika is an outspoken advocate of women's football in Brazil. When Brazil lost 5–1 to Germany at the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, she rejected misleading comparisons to the wealthy male team's recent 7–1 defeat by Germany at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. In a damning open letter, signed by 100 female athletes, she branded Brazil "a sexist and bigoted country that never believed in, accepted, or invested properly in women's football".^[20]

One of Érika's coaches at youth level was Marcinha, a pioneering veteran of EC Radar and Brazil's 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup squad.^[21]

References

1. "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012 – List of Players Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 24 July 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
2. 2015 World Cup
3. "Craque e beldade da Seleção Brasileira Feminina de Futebol manda recado à massa vascaína" (in Portuguese). Super Vasco. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
4. "Pride Makes More Offseason Moves". FC Gold Pride. 22 September 2009. Archived from the original on 8 August 2010. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
5. "Santos bate Botucatu e conquista a Copa do Brasil feminina" (in Portuguese). O Estado de S. Paulo. November 1, 2009. Retrieved December 20, 2014.
6. Peres, Thiago (14 March 2012). "Em novo time, Érika, Maurine e Gabi confiam em projeto para o ouro" (in Portuguese). Terra Networks. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
7. Velasco, Clara; Brenha, Heloisa (19 June 2013). "Considerado amador, futebol feminino leva atletas da seleção a jogar sem salário" (in Portuguese). Folha de S. Paulo. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
8. Galeano, Marina (12 September 2014). "Após trocar o salto alto pela chuteira, Erika se destaca nos gramados" (in Portuguese). Folha de S.Paulo. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
9. "Erika and Cristiane sign for Paris". Paris Saint-Germain F.C. 19 August 2015. Retrieved 22 August 2015.
10. "Atletas - Erika" (in Portuguese). Brazilian Olympic Committee. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
11. Leme de Arruda, Marcelo (9 December 2012). "Seleção Brasileira Feminina (Brazilian National Women's Team) 2006-2007" (in Portuguese). Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
12. "Brazil seal place in Germany". FIFA.com. 20 November 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
13. Longman, Jeré (11 July 2011). "At the Women's World Cup, Drama Without All the Dramatics". The New York Times.
14. "Brazil". FIFA.com. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
15. Magnay, Jacquelin (31 July 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Brazilian women's football team allege plot after five hour wait for bus". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
16. "Érika ressalta a importância do Torneio Internacional de Brasília" (in Portuguese). Brazilian Football Confederation. 12 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
17. Lauletta, Dan (5 June 2015). "Breakers Rafinha added to Brazil's World Cup squad". The Equalizer. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
18. Leme de Arruda, Marcelo (24 August 2014). "Seleção Brasileira Feminina (Brazilian National Women's Team) 2008-2010" (in Portuguese). Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
19. Leme de Arruda, Marcelo (5 March 2014). "Seleção Brasileira Feminina (Brazilian National Women's Team) 2011-2013" (in Portuguese). Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
20. "Zagueira vê falta de apoio ao feminino e critica comparações com o 7 a 1" (in Portuguese). Brasil Online. 15 August 2014. Retrieved 20 December 2014. Em um país machista e preconceituoso que nunca acreditou, aceitou ou investiu de verdade no futebol feminino
21. "Marcinha é destaque do Jornal Gazeta do Tatuapé" (in Portuguese). Clube Atlético Juventus. 9 April 2009. Retrieved 21 December 2014.

External links

• Erika – FIFA competition record
• Érika on Twitter
• 2008 Olympics player profile
• Santos FC player profile
• Women's Professional Soccer player profile