Ludmila da Silva (born 1 December 1994), commonly known as Ludmila, is a Brazilian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

of Spain's Primera División and the Brazil women's national team.

Club career

A high school athletics champion, Ludmila took up organised football at the relatively late age of 15. She was noticed by a scout from CA Juventus and then moved on to play for São Caetano, Portuguesa, Rio Preto and São José as a fast and strong winger. In August 2017, Ludmila agreed to a transfer to Spanish Primera División club

. Her exceptional pace led her to be dubbed: " Road Runner". Good performances and six goals in the first half season prompted Atlético to extend her initial two-year contract by another year in December 2017. In September 2018, Ludmila assisted the first goal and scored the second to eliminate

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

from the 2018–19 UEFA Women's Champions League Round of 32, securing Atlético's place in the

Round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

International career

Ludmila was part of the Brazilian under-20 selection at the

2014 South American U-20 Women's Championship The 2014 South American U-20 Women's Championship was the 6th edition of the South American under-20 women's football championship. It was held from 12 to 31 January 2014 in Uruguay. The best two teams also qualified for the 2014 FIFA U-20 Women's ...

in Uruguay, scoring three goals at the tournament. In the 2–0 final win over

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, she won a penalty which Andressa converted, and then scored the second goal herself. In June 2017, Ludmila was called up to the senior

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

squad for the first time for a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in Sandhausen. She reportedly did not have a passport and had to urgently obtain one to accept the call-up. She stated that national coach Emily Lima, previously her boss at Juventus and São José, was a mother figure to her. In Germany, Brazil fielded a weakened team as the match was outside FIFA-specified international dates and some regular players were unable to attend. Ludmila capitalised on an error by German goalkeeper

Almuth Schult Almuth Schult (; born 9 February 1991) is a German footballer who plays as a goalkeeper the Germany national team and is currently a free agent. Club career At the age of five, Schult began her career at her local football club FC SG Gartow, be ...

to mark her debut with a goal, but Brazil lost 3–1. In previous training sessions with the national team, Ludmila had been stung by criticism from a team official who suggested she was good at running but did not know when to release the ball. Ludmila scored the only goal in a behind closed doors training match against

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

in Ottawa on 4 September 2018.

International goals

Personal life

Ludmila is Afro-Brazilian and was brought up in a

favela Favela () is an umbrella name for several types of working-class neighborhoods in Brazil. The term was first used in the Providência neighborhood in the center of Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century, which was built by soldiers who had ...

by her aunt, as her mother left the family and her father died during her childhood. In 2016 her older sister also died.

References

External links

*
Profile
at

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ludmila da Silva 1994 births Living people Brazilian women's footballers Brazil women's international footballers Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain People from Guarulhos Women's association football forwards São José Esporte Clube (women) players Liga F players Atlético Madrid Femenino players 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Brazil Footballers from São Paulo (state)