Hey, Phil: Bring Marta to LA

If I’m Marta — and I’m not, I hasten to add — I move right now to make sure that AEG pays top dollar.

If the outfit that owns the Galaxy can afford to pay a well-past-his-prime David Beckham $6.5 million a year for five years, then it can afford to pay the world’s finest female soccer player at least $1 million a year.

Anything less would be an insult.

No, it isn't my money, it belongs to Phil Anschutz. But if the Denver billionaire is serious about advancing women’s soccer, then he needs to tell his underlings to do whatever it takes to bring the Brazilian to Los Angeles.

On Wednesday, Marta was assigned to the as-yet unnamed L.A. Women’s Professional Soccer team when the new league, which launches in April, held its international draft of the world’s top foreign players. Earlier, it assigned the best of the Americans to the seven WPS teams.

Marta Viera da Silva was the pick of the crop, the most exciting talent to come out of Brazil since Ronaldinho first laced up his cleats.

She has everything — speed, incredible dribbling ability, an on-field awareness that is unrivaled, the gift of being able to create scoring chances out of thin air, and, best of all, superb finishing ability.

Her skills are the envy of most male professional players, let alone her female counterparts.

She swivels, she spins, she cuts this way and that. She uses every bit of her foot, now the instep, now the outside, now the heel, now the sole. Containing her is a defender’s worst nightmare.

Unpredictable doesn’t begin to define her. She is, in short, well worth watching.

“I was born playing football,” Marta said during the Beijing Olympics. “I don’t know where I learned to play. I’ve been doing it since I was 7.”

If the International Olympic Committee handed out gold medals for individual performance rather than team achievement, Marta would have struck gold in 2004 and 2008. Instead, she has a pair of silver medals.

But she is still only 22 and Olympic Gold surely will come her way. In the meantime, she needs to secure her future by making certain she is paid what she is worth. That kind of gold is just as important.

No one will ever replace Mia Hamm in the hearts of American fans, but Marta could give her a good run for her money. If WPS wants to make an impact, getting her signature on a dotted line is a must.

Being drafted and being signed are not the same thing. There are negotiations ahead. But if AEG could land Beckham, it can land Marta.

The league will have other stars--Abby Wambach, Hope Solo, Homare Sawa, Cristiane, Kelly Smith--but unless Marta is on the field when Los Angeles begins play in April, it won’t mean a thing.

The ball is in AEG’s court.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Photo: Brazil's Marta celebrates after scoring a goal against North Korea during a Beijing 2008 Olympics first-round women's soccer match in Shenyang, China on Aug. 9. Credit: Martin Mejia/Associated Press Photo

Comments

[Eddie Barker]

I would consider myself a pretty knowledgeable soccer fan, not as knowledgeable as my man Grahame Jones, but I've been playing since I was 5. Marta is the real deal. She is more exciting to watch than Ronaldinho (right now at least)! I'm American through and through, but I almost felt myself rooting for Brazil in that Gold medal match. That would be awesome if they brought Marta here!

[GalaxyMike]

Good article, you are right on. Much as Beckham came to the Galaxy to be their standard-bearer - Marta will do to L.A.'s women's franchise. Actually I envision her being (-if- signed) a Cobi Jones like presence that may be able to spend her career here in L.A. (if the ladies league lasts that long!) and become the face of the franchise. Her skills are unquestionable, and perhaps they can lure a couple of her Brazilian teammates to come along with her to L.A.

I know that if they do sign her I would tune in to their games simply to see her play. It would be much like Kobe, or Cristiano Ronaldo in soccer, or Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker in WNBA - Marta is the best player in the world and a special player that will be worth watching.

Now hopefully Mr. Anschutz is reading this article and taking it to heart!

[Jennifer Doyle]

But we want more information! What the heck is going on with this team? No name? No publicity, no nothing. They are well behind other teams in the new league in terms of building up their fan base. I can't see what good AEG is doing with the Galaxy right now, and we are supposed to trust them with developing the women's game??? Marta has every reason to want to play in southern california, home to some of the best women's soccer in the country - plus, the area offers a huge potential in terms of fans for her - wouldn't it be amazing to see the LA team reach out to the fans of latin american soccer? To the women in that community who would love to play themselves but haven't had the opportunity? she represents so much for women who were told as girls they couldn't play - a different demographic than we usually seem to think about when we think about the women's game here... But I just don't understand how this team - which seems to be little more than a plan? a rumor? is going to sign the best payed, most famous female player in the world? Read my blog, by the way, if you want detailed accounts of Brazil's performance in the Olympics. You'll see there that as great as Marta is, Cristiane may be even better, and Formiga - a total playmaker and perhaps the hardest working woman on the field (and that's saying a lot) - may be the smartest pick for developing a great all around team.

People say they'll tune in to watch her play because she is that much better than everyone else. Fact of the matter is: they will get to see players of this caliber playing for other teams, too (Cristiane for Red Stars and Formiga for the Bay area team). Just goes to show you - with so little coverage of the international women's game, people aren't really all that aware of what's going on. It's easier to say that Marta is the One (the Neo of the women's soccer matrix). The reality is actually more exciting. But telling that story would require consistent attention to the game, and to more than just the games played between the US and el resto del mundo.

[Peter Procopolis]

i'm all for bringing Marta to this league. I am a season ticket holder, but the authori's justification that if AEG can pay Beckham $6.5 million, then Marta should get $1.0 million is both ignorant and dangerous.

Maybe Marta is worth a million bucks to somebody. But this league has been preaching fiscal responsibility. You can damn well believe that all those US gold medalists are going to be asking for $250K or $500K if a silver medalist is making a million.

Hey, I love this sport, but no of these players have proven they deserve to be earning six figures, let alone seven. The audience is too small.

[Jennifer Doyle]

Peter,

I don't think we are in any "danger" of seeing even the world's greatest female soccer player earning a one million dollar paycheck. But GJ is allowed, like the rest of us, to dream of the day when an athlete like her gets money in the neighborhood of what her male counterparts earn. So, I of course see the unlikelihood of her (or any of the other stars of the sport - Kai, Lloyd, Solo, Cristiane, Prinz, Angerer) being paid that much as a manifestation basic sexism. what about 90,000 people in the rose bowl back in the 1990s? all those Mia Hamm shirts? Go for the Goal on the NYT bestsellers list for how many weeks? of course the audience is there - the sports companies just haven't figured out how to market women's sports - how to overcome the casual sexism deeply embedded in pop culture when it comes to women athletes. (Neither Nike or Adidas, for example, sell women's soccer gear in any of their stores in the UK, in spite of the fact that 2,000,000 women play it - why? Because their executives, I guess, don't want to antagonize their male customers with the presence of women athletes in the stores? With images of women athletes? I don't get it? That's 4 million feet wearing men's shoes.) Fact is, Marta's name would bring the WPS back more than that money via promotional materials. Like Beckham, Marta is a great candidate for the sort of deal by which her name moves shirts, shoes, posters, and promotes the league itself - and by which the MLS recuperates whatever it pays her via those sales.