Formiga: Curtain call on Brazil duty at Tokyo 2020 but she's not ready to stop playing just yet

200 national team caps, seven World Cups and soon to be seven Olympics - but just one Formiga.

The 43-year-old midfielder has been a part of the national team set-up since 1995, and she's still going strong.

Part of head coach Pia Sundhage's squad for Tokyo 2020, Formiga will be competing for what would be a third Olympic medal.

And that medal would mean that little bit more for the Brazil veteran, as she plans to retire from international football after the Games.

Even though she has plans to continue playing domestically, curtains will be drawn on what is effectively her second stint in the national team.

But no matter whether she is playing, coaching or peacefully enjoying retirement - she says she'll never stop fighting for women's football in Brazil.

"What I most want, and I think everyone knows this, are improvements in our sport so that we can get more respect," she told ESPN.

"What we need to do is win an important tournament like the World Cup or the Olympics. We've tried many times and never managed it but we'll keep trying.

"Never give up."

A long and glittering career

Born in 1978, Formiga came into the world at a time when it was illegal for women to play football in Brazil.

The law was ultimately lifted a year later and, thanks to players like her and Marta, women’s football remains on the rise.

Named Miraildes Maciel Mota, she earned the nickname Formiga – the Portuguese word for ant - very early on in her career.

It was her unselfish style of play – reminding others of how ants work together as a colony – that inspired the nickname that would become the name she is so commonly recognised as around the world.

She has played for 13 different clubs all over the world, including the USA, Europe and across her homeland of Brazil.

Formiga has been part of the national team almost as long as she has been playing club football, making her debut at just 17.

She has since become the most capped player in Brazil’s football history, making her 200th appearance in December 2020.

Across her time with the national team, she has been a part of a record-breaking seven World Cup tournaments, winning bronze in 1999 and silver in 2007.

In 2015, she became the oldest player to ever score at a World Cup, to which her coach at the time - Vadao - responded: "Formiga does not belong to Planet Earth, she does not belong on this planet."

Silver is also the best finish she’s achieved at the Olympic Games, taking second place at both Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008; and she is on course to attend her seventh Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, held in 2021.

Formiga initially retired in 2016 and came back to compete with her country in the South American Championships in 2018 – winning a sixth consecutive title.

Now, three years on from making her comeback, the living legend will call it time on her international career once and for all after the Games but she isn’t quite ready to stop playing club football just yet.

Formiga recently returned to São Paulo, the club she started her career with in 1993.

The transfer comes off the back of helping Paris Saint-Germain to an historic first league title.

The midfielder played 68 games for the French club, ending her four-year spell on a high.

Marta's impassioned plea

While Formiga's illustrious career will continue beyond her international retirement, it's her presence for her country that has blazed a trail for future generations.

From being born when women's football was illegal to etching her name in history, she is one of a kind.

And her teammate, and fellow record breaker Marta, knows it.

In a passionate plea after being knocked out of the World Cup in 2019, Marta tells future generations that the livelihood of women's football in their country depends on them.

"There's not going to be a Formiga forever, there's not going to be a Marta forever, there's not going to be a Cristiane," she said.

"The women's game depends on you to survive."

The trio have been pioneers for the women's game in Brazil, and are winding up to pass the torch onto the future.

But for now, Formiga continues to play at the highest level and will hope to help lead her country to a podium finish at the Tokyo Olympics.