Maria Aparecida Souza Alves (born 7 July 1993), usually known as Maria Alves and sometimes simply as Maria, is a Brazilian

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 Santos.

Club career

Career beginnings

Born in Tabocal Grande, a small village near Cristalândia do Piauí,

Piauí Piaui (, ) is one of the states of Brazil, located in the country's Northeast Region. The state has 1.6% of the Brazilian population and produces 0.7% of the Brazilian GDP. Piaui has the shortest coastline of any coastal Brazilian state at 66&n ...

, Maria moved to

Brasília Brasília (; ) is the federal capital of Brazil and seat of government of the Federal District. The city is located at the top of the Brazilian highlands in the country's Central-West region. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitsche ...

at the age of 14 to pursue a professional career. She began her career with in 2010, and spent three months at

Ipatinga Ipatinga is a municipality in eastern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The city was founded on 29 April 1964 and covers a total area of . Its population is 267,333 as of 2021. It is part of the Vale do Aço (Steel Valley) metropolitan area (populati ...

before receiving an offer from Vitória das Tabocas in 2011.

Centro Olímpico

In 2013, Maria joined Centro Olímpico. She made her league debut against Tuna Luso on 23 October 2013.

Santos

Maria Alves joined Santos in 2015, after the women's team was reestablished. She scored on her league debut against Pinheirense on 9 September 2015, scoring in the 25th minute.

Juventus

On 3 September 2019, Maria moved abroad for the first time in her career, signing for

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

. She made her league debut against

Empoli Empoli () is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, Italy, about southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The comm ...

on 14 September 2019. Maria Alves scored her first league goal against

Florentia Florentia () is a former commune in the Jura department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in eastern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the commune of Val-d'Épy. Population See also * Communes of the Jura department The following ...

on 13 October 2019, scoring in the 70th minute.

Palmeiras

On 24 May 2021, she returned to her home country with

Palmeiras Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (), commonly known as Palmeiras, is a Brazilian professional football club based in the city of São Paulo, in the district of Perdizes. Palmeiras is one of the most popular clubs in South America, with around ...

. Maria Alves made her league debut against Flamengo on 31 May 2021. She scored her first league goal against

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

on 21 June 2021, scoring in the 75th minute.

Flamengo

On 16 January 2022, Maria agreed to a contract with

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

. She made her league debut against

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

on 7 March 2022. Maria Alves scored her first goal for the club against CRESSPOM on 13 March 2022, scoring in the 90th+2nd minute.

León

On 17 August 2023, she was presented at

Liga MX Femenil The Liga MX Femenil, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX Femenil for sponsorship reasons, is the highest division of women's football in Mexico. Supervised by the Mexican Football Federation, this professional league has 18 teams, each coincidi ...

side León.

Santos

On 22 January 2024, Maria was announced back at her former club Santos on a one-year contract. She made her league debut against Real Brasília on 15 March 2024.

International career

Maria Alves represented Brazil at the

2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2012 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the 6th edition of the tournament. The tournament was played in Japan from 19 August to 8 September, with sixteen national football soccer teams and mark the first hosting of a FIFA women's football tourna ...

. She made her senior debut in 2017.

Career statistics

International

Honours

Centro Olímpico * Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino: 2013 São José *

International Women's Club Championship The International Women's Club Championship (IWCC), previously named the mobcast Cup and the Nestlé Cup for sponsorship reasons, was an international association football knockout cup competition contested by women's champion clubs. It was organ ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Copa Libertadores Femenina The CONMEBOL Libertadores Femenina, named as "Copa Libertadores Femenina" ( pt, Copa Libertadores Feminina or Taça Libertadores Feminina) is an annual international women's association football club competition in South America. It is organized by ...

Santos * Campeonato Brasileiro de Futebol Feminino: 2017 *

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional association football, football league in the Brazilian States of Brazil, state of São Paulo (state), São Paulo. Run b ...

: 2018 Juventus *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

: 2018–19 *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Alves 1993 births Living people Women's association football midfielders Women's association football forwards Brazilian women's footballers Footballers from Piauí Brazil women's international footballers Associação Acadêmica e Desportiva Vitória das Tabocas players Associação Desportiva Centro Olímpico players São José Esporte Clube (women) players Santos FC (women) players Serie A (women's football) players Liga MX Femenil players Juventus FC (women) players Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (women) players Club León (women) footballers Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate women's footballers in Italy Expatriate women's footballers in Mexico Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (women) players