Formiga

Miraildes Maciel Mota (born 3 March 1978), commonly known as Formiga (Portuguese: ant), is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a midfielder for Paris Saint-Germain. 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 a record for appearing at seven different FIFA Women's World Cup tournaments.

Born in Salvador, Formiga was born during a period when it had become illegal for women to play football in Brazil.

Formiga began 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. She earned the nickname Formiga, which means ant in Portuguese, as a teenager because of her unselfish style of play which reminded fellow players of the way ants worked together as a colony.

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. 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. 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. In 2011, Formiga returned to her country to play for São José.

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. She returned in the 2012 and 2016 tournaments, setting an outright record as the only player present in all six editions of the Olympics tournament.

The 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup is Formiga’s record-breaking seventh consecutive tournament appearance; Lothar Matthäus, Antonio Carbajal, and Rafael Márquez share the record of five consecutive appearances in the men's competition. Along the way, Formiga's Brazil reached third place in 1999 and were runners-up to Birgit Prinz's Germany in 2007. Formiga became the competition's oldest goalscorer with a goal against South Korea on 9 June 2015. She was 37 years, three months and six days old.

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

Formiga retired from the Brazilian national team in 2016, but returned in 2018 to compete in the Copa América Femenina, in Chile. She also appeared for Brazil at the 2019 World Cup, becoming the oldest player in the tournament's history at the age of 41.