Vânia Cristina Martins (born 9 November 1980), simply known as Vânia, is a Brazilian former

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 ...

and full back. She was a member of the Brazil women's national team.

Career

Vânia played for several Brazilian teams, of which highlights Portuguesa, São Paulo and Corinthians.

International career

Vânia represented

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 ...

at senior level in the 2010 International Tournament City of São Paulo, playing a match against

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Controversy

From 2011 to 2016, Vânia made appearances for the Equatorial Guinea women's national team despite having no connection with the African nation. She attended the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...

and was champion of the

2012 African Women's Championship The 2012 African Women's Championship was a football competition, which was organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The final tournament was held in from 28 October to 11 November in Equatorial Guinea. Qualification A total of ...

. She also played the 2015 CAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament and ultimately the 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations Qualifying. On October 5, 2017, she and other nine Brazilian footballers were declared by FIFA as ineligible to play for Equatorial Guinea.

References

External links

1980 births Living people Footballers from São Paulo (state) Brazilian women's footballers Women's association football fullbacks Women's association football forwards Associação Desportiva Centro Olímpico players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista (women) players Levante UD Femenino players Santa Teresa CD players Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels WFC players Primera División (women) players Brazil women's international footballers Brazilian expatriate women's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate women's footballers in Spain Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate women's footballers in South Korea Equatorial Guinea women's international footballers 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup players Dual internationalists (women's football) CD Badajoz Femenino players {{Brazil-footy-forward-1980s-stub