Brazilian Soccer Star Marta Going to Los Angeles

The Brazilian star Marta has bid farewell to her Swedish club team and is expected to sign with the Los Angeles Sol of the new Women’s Professional Soccer league. An announcement could come on Monday in Switzerland, where Marta is one of five finalists for FIFA’s women’splayer of the year award.

Marta, 22, whose full name is Marta Vieira da Silva, has played for Umea IK in Sweden since 2004 but turned down a new contract to accept a three-year, $1.5 million deal with the Sol, according to the Expressen, a daily newspaper in Stockholm.

“We’re in a great place with it, but I don’t want to say anything without having a signed document,” Charlie Naimo, the Sol’s general manager, said Thursday in a telephone interview from Chula Vista, Calif., where he was scouting players at a United States national team under-23 training camp. “I will say that that’s a lot of money to be throwing around and that a figure of $500,000 a year is ridiculous. But from our perspective, we’re cautiously optimistic and we like our position.”

Marta, a skillful and creative left-footed player who is comfortable as either a striker or a midfielder, has played 45 times for Brazil’s women’s national team, most recently in the gold medal game at the Beijing Olympics, a 1-0 overtime loss to the United States. She has twice been named FIFA’s women’s player of the year and is expected to walk away with her third trophy at a banquet Monday night in Zurich.

Marta’s friend and teammate at Umea, central defender Johanna Frisk, 22, has also left the club and is close to signing a contract with the Sol, Naimo said. The W.P.S. is a seven-team league scheduled to begin play in late March when the Sol host the Washington Freedom in the league’s inaugural game, at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif.

“I’m confident it’s not a done deal, but it looks good,” Naimo said. “We’re in the same boat with all five of our international players: we have soft agreements. But until we have something signed, there’s nothing binding.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/09/sports/soccer/09soccer.html?ref=sports