Formiga (footballer)

Formiga

At the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup
Personal information
Full name	Miraildes Maciel Mota[1]
Date of birth	3 March 1978
Place of birth	Salvador, Bahia, Brazil[2]
Height	162 cm (5 ft 4 in)[3]
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current team	São José Esporte Clube
Number	8[4]
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1993–1997	São Paulo
1998	Portuguesa
1999	São Paulo
2000–2001	Santa Isabel
2002	Santos
2003	Independente
2004–2005	Malmö FF Dam
2006	New Jersey Wildcats	12	(13)
2007	Jersey Sky Blue	6	(1)
2007	Saad
2008	Botucatu
2009	FC Gold Pride	16	(0)
2010	Chicago Red Stars	23	(0)
2011–	São José
National team^‡
1995–	Brazil	138[5]	(20)
Honours Olympic Games 2004 Athens Team 2008 Beijing Team Pan American Games 2003 Santo Domingo Team 2007 Rio de Janeiro Team 2011 Guadalajara Team 2015 Toronto Team
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 18:32, 23 June 2015 (UTC)

Miraildes Maciel Mota (born 3 March 1978), commonly known as Formiga (Portuguese: ant), is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a midfielder for São José Esporte Clube. She previously played for professional clubs in Sweden and the United States. Formiga holds many international records as a member of the Brazil women's national football team, being the only player present in all Olympic Games tournaments of women's football since the first edition at the 1996 Summer Olympics, and sharing with Homare Sawa a record six appearances at the FIFA Women's World Cup.

Career

Born in Salvador, Formiga begun playing football at the age of 12. She has cited Dunga, captain of the male Brazilian team that won the 1994 FIFA World Cup as the biggest influence on her playing style.^[6]

Formiga played in the Swedish Damallsvenskan as a member of Malmö FF Dam, and for both Santa Isabel and Saad in her homeland of Brazil.^[7] Formiga was the first overall pick for the newly inaugurated Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) league in the United States in the 2008 WPS International Draft, selected by FC Gold Pride of Santa Clara, California.^[8] Formiga started 15 of her 16 games for Gold Pride in their inaugural season in 2009. The following season, Formiga played for Chicago Red Stars, alongside compatriot Cristiane.^[9] In 2011, Formiga returned to her country to play for São José.

International

Formiga first played for Brazilian women's national team at the age of 17, as part of the squad for the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, playing as a substitute. The following year, during the inaugural tournament for women's football at the 1996 Summer Olympics, she became a regular starter in the Brazilian team. Formiga and Pretinha were the only two Brazilian players who participated in the first four Olympic Games tournaments of women's football, winning the silver medal in both 2004 and 2008 - both finals lost to the United States.^[6] She returned in the 2012 tournament, setting an outright record as the only player present in all five editions of the Olympics tournament.^[10]

In the FIFA Women's World Cup, Formiga has appeared in six consecutive tournaments from 1995 to 2015, an achievement matched only by Homare Sawa in women's football,^[11] eclipsing the retired Lothar Matthäus and Antonio Carbajal who hold the record of five consecutive appearances in the men's competition.^[12] Along the way, Formiga's Brazil reached third place in 1999 and were runners-up to Birgit Prinz's Germany in 2007.^[6] Formiga became the competition's oldest goalscorer with a goal against South Korea on 9 June 2015.^[13] She was 37 years, three months and six days old.^[14]

Formiga also won the gold medal in three editions of the Pan American Games, 2003, 2007 and 2015,^[6] and winning the silver in 2011 when Brazil were beaten by Canada.

International goals

Goal	Date	Location	Opponent	#	Score	Result	Competition
1.goal 1	1998-03-15	Mar del Plata	Argentina	1.1	4–0	7–1	Copa America 1998
2.goal 2	2000-06-20	Hershey	Costa Rica	2.1	2–0	8–0	CONCACAF Gold Cup 2000
3.goal 3				2.2	3–0
4.goal 4	2003-04-25	Lima	Peru	1.1	1–0	3–0	Copa America 2003
5.goal 5	2003-04-27	Lima	Colombia	1.1	3–0	12–0	Copa America 2003
6.goal 6	2003-08-2	San Cristóbal	Haiti	1.1	3–0	5–0	2003 Pan American Games
7.goal 7	2003-08-8	San Cristóbal	Canada	1.1	2–0	5–0	2003 Pan American Games
8.goal 8	2003-08-14	San Cristóbal	Canada	1.1	1–0	2–1	2003 Pan American Games
9.goal 9	2004-08-20	Heraklio	Mexico	2.1	2–0	5–0	Olympics 2004
10.goal 10				2.2	4–0
11.goal 11	2007-09-03	Tianjin	Australia	1.1	1–0	3–2	2007 FIFA Women's World Cup
12.goal 12	2008-08-18	Shanghai	Germany	1.1	1–1	4–1	Olympics 2008
13.goal 13	2012-07-14	Chatel-St-Denis	Colombia	1.1	2–1	2–1	2012 Matchworld Women's Cup
14.goal 14	2012-07-17	Chatel-St-Denis	Canada	1.1	1–0	2–1	2012 Matchworld Women's Cup
15.goal 15	2013-12-22	Brasilia	Chile	1.1	1–0	5–0	Torneio Internacional 2013
16.goal 16	2014-09-12	Loja	Bolivia	2.1	1–0	6–0	Copa América 2014
17.goal 17				2.2	4–0
18.goal 18	2014-12-10	Brasilia	Argentina	2.1	2–0	4–0	Torneio Internacional 2014
19.goal 19				2.2	4–0
20.goal 20	2015-06-09	Montreal	South Korea	1.1	1–0	2–0	2015 FIFA Women's World Cup
21.goal 21	2015-07-11	Toronto	Costa Rica	1.1	3–0	3–0	2015 Pan American Games
22.goal 22	2015-07-25	Toronto	Colombia	1.1	1–0	4–0	2015 Pan American Games
23.goal 23	2015-12-01	Cuiabá	New Zealand	1.1	3–1	5–1	Friendly game
24.goal 24	2015-12-13	Natal	Mexico	1.1	5–0	6–0	Torneio Internacional Natal 2015
25.goal 25	2016-03-07	Lagos	Russia	1.1	1–0	3–0	Algarve Cup 2016

References

1. "Women's Olympic Football Tournament London 2012 – List of Players Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 24 July 2012. Retrieved 20 December 2014.
2. "Formiga". Sports Reference. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
3. "List of Players - Brazil" (PDF). FIFA. 8 June 2015. p. 2. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
4. "Confederação Brasileira de Futebol súmula on-line - CBF, jogo 37" (PDF) (in Portuguese). Brazilian Football Confederation. 12 February 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
5. "Profile". FIFA.com. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
6. "Formiga" (in Portuguese). Universo Online. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
7. "Formiga" (in Portuguese). Universo Online. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
8. Elliot, Almond (3 February 2009). "FC Gold Pride signs No. 1 pick Formiga". San Jose Mercury News. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
9. "Brazilian midfielder Formiga joins Cristiane on Red Stars". Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). 2 March 2010. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
10. "Record-breaking Brazil set bar high". FIFA. 25 July 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
11. "Newcomers make their bows as records tumble". FIFA. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
12. Kassouf, Jeff (9 June 2015). "Sawa, Formiga set record with 6th World Cups". The Equalizer. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
13. "Brazil in record-breaking World Cup win against South Korea". The Guardian. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
14. "Formiga, Brazil's supernatural force". FIFA. 10 June 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2015.

External links

• Formiga – FIFA competition record
• FC Gold Pride player profile
• New Jersey Wildcats player profile
• Saad player profile (Portuguese)
• Formiga – 2015 Pan American Games profile