The “Michael Jackson”: The legacy

The same year, her nephew was born and named Michael Cristian, in homage to her.

Michael always missed her family in Brazil and that was one the main reasons for her return from Europe. Her mother, Rita, already elderly, needed care and attention from her children.

She gave her mother a brick house as a gift, remembering the old wattle and daub house the family used to have when she was a child, and returned to Valença to stay close to her relatives. This moment brought her closer to the sports life in the small town. She also played friendly matches with Clube dos Coroados, her team in early years.

She also taught football classes to kids in Valença, reminding her of the time in girls football academy in Italy, and as children's coach in USA in 2003.

After her mother passed away Marileia spent a long time at Saad Esporte Clube between 2005 and 2009, where she won the Brazilian Cup.

In 2009, she ended her football career by winning the Regional Games Championship and the Open Games with the Saad team.

Marileia dos Santos: on and off the pitch.

Marileia played until age 46, an unlikely age for most high-achieving athletes. If on the pitch, Marileia always had the ability and will to score goals, off the pitch she also proved determined.

In 2011, Marileia dos Santos became General Coordinator of Professional Soccer of the Ministry of Sports, in Brasília. She created projects such as the Brazilian Escolar Cup, the University Cup, the Brazilian Futsal Championship and fought for the return of the Brazilian Women's Soccer Championship with the sponsorship of Caixa Econômica Federal.

If one day, a decree signed by a president generated decades of retrogression for the most popular modality of Brazil, Marileia dos Santos, after 1547 goals in the field, perhaps has scored the most beautiful goal of her career: re-approaching women's football and the political plans of a nation recognized as the country of football. In 2019, Marileia composed the CBF Council under the presidency of Rogério Caboclo.

Marileia was part of a generation that inaugurated and popularized the idea that girls could also become football players. With a career that went through the regulation of women's football in 1983, Marileia made the way for other Brazilian women to wear the dreamed-of yellow shirt.

Back
Part 1: First steps on the pitch during the banning of women’s football and the beginning of her career.
Part 2: The regulation of women's football after its legalization.