Érika Cristiano dos Santos (born 4 February 1988 in São Paulo), commonly known as Érika, is a Brazilian footballer who plays as a defender for Santos and the Brazilian Women's National Team.Before being drafted by FC Gold Pride in the 2008 WPS International Draft, Érika was a member of Santos FC. Despite appearing in 7 games for FC Gold Pride, Érika was deemed surplus to requirements at season's close by Albertin Montoya.
Érika has represented Brazil at both the U-20 and senior international levels.
As part of the 2011 Brazilian world cup team, Erika was involved in a controversial play near the end of Brazil's game with the United States. With only a few minutes left in the game, Erika suddenly dropped to the field in apparent agony from a back spasm. After being attended to and being removed from the field on a stretcher, she suddenly jumped up and began running, clutching her back. This created controversy among sports analysts regarding the validity of her injury, with some assuming the injury was "faked" to quench a US rally. As a result of the delay, 3 minutes were added to the game as additional time, during which the US scored the game-tying goal, and went on to win the game on penalty kicks.
