Roseli de Belo (born 7 September 1969), commonly known as Roseli, 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 played 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 the

Brazil women's national football team The Brazil women's national football team (Portuguese: ''Seleção Brasileira Feminina de futebol'') represents Brazil in international women's football and is run by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF). It has participated in eight ed ...

. She represented Brazil at the

FIFA Women's World Cup The FIFA Women's World Cup is an international association football competition contested by the senior women's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association ( FIFA), the sport's international governing bo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

and

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

; as well as in the inaugural Olympic women's football tournament in

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

. She also played in the

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Olympics and was part of Brazil's silver medal-winning squad in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Roseli played professional club football in Japan with Takarazuka Bunnys and in the United States with

Washington Freedom Washington Freedom was an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Germantown, Maryland, that participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The Freedom was founded in 2001 as a member of the defunct Women's Uni ...

Club career

From 1995 until 1997 Roseli played professional football in the Japanese L. League with Takarazuka Bunnys. When the professional

Women's United Soccer Association The Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA) was the world's first Women's association football, women's soccer league in which all the players were paid as professionals. Founded in February 2000 in sports, 2000, the league began its first se ...

(WUSA) started in 2001, Roseli and compatriot

Pretinha Delma Gonçalves (born 19 May 1975), commonly known as Pretinha,In a June 199with Grant Wahl, Pretinha said her nickname means "little black girl" and that the reference to skin color is not considered problematic in Brazil. is a Brazilian profe ...

were assigned to

in the inaugural draft. Washington performed poorly in their first season and bought out Roseli's contract after she failed to score in 11 appearances, only three of which were starts.

International career

Roseli was part of the

EC Radar Esporte Clube Radar was a Brazilian professional women's association football club, based in the Copacabana neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Founded in 1981, they enjoyed unprecedented success in the early days of women's football in Braz ...

club team who represented Brazil at the

1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament The 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament, or International Women's Football Tournament, was organised by FIFA in China from 1 to 12 June 1988. The competition was a test to study if a global women's World Cup was feasible following the experie ...

in Guangdong and finished in third place. The Chinese press voted her into the tournament's official all–star team. At the

1991 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup was the inaugural FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It took place in Guangdong, China from 16 to 30 November 1991. FIFA, football's international gove ...

Roseli started Brazil's first ever World Cup match; a 1–0 group stage win over

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Foshan Foshan (, ), alternately romanized as Fatshan, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. The entire prefecture covers and had a population of 9,498,863 as of the 2020 census. The city is part of the western side of the ...

. Four years later she scored the only goal as Brazil shocked hosts

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

1–0 in the opening match of the

1995 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup, the second edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, was held in Sweden and won by Norway women's national football team, Norway, who became the first European nation to win the Women's World Cup. The tournament fea ...

. In December 1997 Roseli scored another game-winning goal, against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in her native

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 ...

, giving Brazil their first ever victory over their American rivals. Roseli scored 15 goals in

qualifying Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

for the

1999 FIFA Women's World Cup The 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup was the third edition of the FIFA Women's World Cup, the world championship for women's national soccer teams. It was hosted as well as won by the United States and took place from June 19 to July 10, 1999, at ...

, but a knee injury sustained against the United States in 1998 kept her out of the final tournament. Without Roseli, Brazil reached the semi final but were knocked out by the United States. She returned to the national team for yet another match against the United States in September 1999. When Brazil named their squad for the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Roseli was included. She featured as a substitute in Brazil's 1–0 semi final defeat to the United States. She was named equal third (level with

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

, behind

and Sissi) in the

International Federation of Football History & Statistics The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

(IFFHS) South America's best Women's Footballer of the Century list. In October 2006, Roseli travelled with a São Paulo select team to participate in the

Peace Queen Cup The Peace Queen Cup was an invitational women's association football tournament for national teams organized by the Sunmoon Peace Football Foundation. Its three editions were all been hosted by South Korea. The foundation also organized the Peace ...

in South Korea.

References

External links

*
Saad EC
profile {{DEFAULTSORT:Roseli 1969 births Living people Olympic footballers of Brazil Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1991 FIFA Women's World Cup players Olympic silver medalists for Brazil Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Brazil women's international footballers Brazilian women's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Japan EC Radar players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista (women) players Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Nadeshiko League players Bunnys Kyoto SC players Washington Freedom players Women's United Soccer Association players Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Expatriate women's footballers in Japan Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Footballers from São Paulo Women's association football forwards Saad Esporte Clube (women) players