Lyon’s Catarina Macario: ‘Choosing Europe was for moments like this’

A place in Saturday's Champions League final vindicates bold decisions taken by the Brazil-born US international and her dad

The journey of the striker Catarina Macario from the Brazilian city of Sao Luis to a first Champions League final with the seven-times winners Lyon has been long but not surprising to those familiar with her remarkable backstory.

Macario is used to making bold decisions to further her steady and goal-laden rise. Her family swapped Sao Luis for Brasilia for her mother's job as a surgeon when she was seven and, when Macario was 12 and no longer allowed to play with boys, her father decided to split the family. He, Macario and her brother Steve moved to San Diego in the US so she could play while her mother supported the family from afar.