Sisleide do Amor Lima (born 2 June 1967), commonly known as Sissi, is a Brazilian footballer and coach who played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

. She last played for

FC Gold Pride FC Gold Pride was an American professional soccer club based in the San Francisco Bay Area, which participated in Women's Professional Soccer. The club replaced the San Jose CyberRays of the defunct Women's United Soccer Association as the top-l ...

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

and is a former member of 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 ...

Early life

Born in

Esplanada Esplanada is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the states of Brazil, state of Bahia in the Nordeste, North-East region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Bahia References

Populated coastal places in Bahia Municipalit ...

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 ...

, Sissi began playing football at the age of six with her older brother Paulo and her father. At the age of 14, she left her home in Esplanada to play professionally in

Salvador, Brazil Salvador (English: ''Savior'') is a Brazilian municipality and capital city of the state of Bahia. Situated in the Zona da Mata in the Northeast Region of Brazil, Salvador is recognized throughout the country and internationally for its cuisine ...

. She played for the first time with the Brazilian national team at age 16. In 1999 she transferred from

São Paulo FC São Paulo Futebol Clube (), commonly referred to as São Paulo, is a professional football club in the Morumbi district of São Paulo, Brazil, founded in 1930. It plays in the Campeonato Paulista (the State of São Paulo's premier state leag ...

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 ...

for a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

5,000 fee.

Club career

San Jose CyberRays (2001-2003)

Sissi played for the

San Jose CyberRays San Jose CyberRays was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association. The team played at Spartan Stadium on the South Campus of San José State University in San Jose, California. Stars included U.S. National ...

in the first women's professional soccer league in the United States, the

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) all three years that the league was in existence. The team won the Founders Cup Championship in their first year together.

California Storm (2004-2014)

In 2004, Sissi signed to play with the

California Storm California Storm is an American women's soccer team, founded in 1995 as the Sacramento Storm, dropping the city name in favor of California the following season. The team is a member of the Women's Premier Soccer League, the second tier of wom ...

in the

Women's Premier Soccer League The Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) is an amateur women's soccer league in the United States and Canada. It is the top amateur league for women's soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, below only National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). T ...

, the highest women's professional soccer league in the United States after the WUSA ceased operations. She joined fellow 1999 Women's World Cup stars,

Brandi Chastain Brandi Denise Chastain (born July 21, 1968) is an American retired soccer player, two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion, two-time Olympic gold-medalist, coach, and sports broadcaster. She played for the United States national team from 1988 ...

and

Keri Sanchez Keri Lynn Sanchez (formerly Raygor; born December 25, 1972) is an American women's association football, women's soccer coach who serves as head coach of the Colorado College Tigers women's soccer team. She is also a former player who last playe ...

Saad Esporte Club (2005)

In November 2005, Sissi made a brief return to one of her former clubs in Brazil,

Saad Esporte Clube Saad Esporte Clube – since 2009 commonly MS/Saad – is a Brazilian association football club founded 1961 in São Caetano do Sul on the outskirts of São Paulo. In the latter part of the first decade of the 21st century, the club established an ...

FC Gold Pride (2009)

Sissi signed with

for the inaugural season of

(WPS) as the team's assistant coach. On 11 June 2009, it was announced that Sissi was joining the roster of the team, making her the oldest player in the league at age 42. She made three appearances as a player for the club playing a total of 128 minutes. She was also an assistant coach.

International career

Sissi was part of the EC Radar club team who represented Brazil at the 1988 FIFA Women's Invitation Tournament in

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

and finished in third place. She was unable to take part in the inaugural

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 ...

because she was not released by her club team. Sissi was called up to Brazil's squad 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 ...

as a

player. She won the golden boot award at the tournament in which she scored seven goals, sharing the award with

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

's Sun Wen.

Coaching career

On 29 September 2008, Sissi was announced as the new assistant coach for the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

team, ultimately known as

. She was also the head coach for the Las Positas College Women's Soccer team based in Livermore, California. She was a coach for the Diablo Valley Soccer Club (DVSC) for three years as well as Clayton Valley High School. She currently coaches at Walnut Creek Soccer Club and at Solano Community College in Fairfield, California, USA.

References

External links

*
FC Gold Pride player profileSan Jose CyberRays player profileWalnut Creek Soccer Club coach profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sissi 1967 births Living people Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Brazilian women's footballers Olympic footballers of Brazil Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup players 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup players FC Gold Pride players San Jose CyberRays players Expatriate women's soccer players in the United States Women's United Soccer Association players Brazil women's international footballers Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Sportspeople from Bahia Women's association football midfielders Saad Esporte Clube (women) players California Storm players Women's Premier Soccer League players São Paulo FC (women) players Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras (women) players Women's Professional Soccer players