Marta's addition to the NWSL is a really big deal, both now and for the future of the league
Like so many soccer legends, she only needs one name. All that needs to be said is Pele, Messi, Ronaldinho or Marta – no further explanation is required.
She's earned comparisons to some of those players – she can control the ball like Pele and deliver the effortless flair of Ronaldinho – but Marta has forged her own path as one of the world's most special soccer talents. She's been named FIFA Player of the Year five times, was a finalist another six times and has picked up a trove of other individual awards along the way.
There's little debate about it: Marta is the greatest soccer player the women's game has ever seen. And now, she is going to play in the United States for the Orlando Pride in the NWSL's most spectacular acquisition to date.
At a time when some of the league's biggest stars – the likes of Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan – have been exploring playing opportunities overseas, that Marta has come stateside signals the NWSL's influence can continue to grow beyond the shadow of the U.S. women's national team. A player of Marta's caliber could play anywhere, but she chose the NWSL.
The American league, only five years old, has its challenges in attracting a superstar icon like Marta: the maximum she can be paid is just $41,700 under the league's strict salary caps, a significant pay cut from what she earns in Sweden right now. But a key factor in bringing Marta stateside was the lure of better endorsement deals she could get by playing in the NWSL, a glimpse at the influence women's soccer has in the U.S.
The NWSL, which is backed by U.S. Soccer, has built-in mechanisms to keep U.S. women's national team players in the league and most of the league's star power comes from the USWNT. But the true test of the league's growing influence is probably its ability to attract big-name internationals, much the way MLS sought to build in its early days with the signing of David Beckham.
So, the fact that Marta is coming to play in the NWSL is a very big deal. It's big for the league and it's big for women's soccer in the United States -- and it's also big because Marta is such a special player. It would be a little bit like if Cristiano Ronaldo came to play in MLS now.
While Marta is a household name with high marketability, more important for the long-term growth of the NWSL, is that she is someone who will make the on-field product better. She is someone who is capable of doing great and special things on the pitch.
Her brilliance is often hard to capture in small bites and in the GIF form of modern sharing. Although she does pepper her game with splendid individual skills – elasticos, nutmegs and whatever else – it's the completeness of her game that is so remarkable. She does all the little things right, and zeroing on a step-over she does to shake a defender only shows part of why she's so effective.
Orlando Pride coach Tom Sermanni can put Marta anywhere and she will be an instant upgrade. For the Pride, who will be without Alex Morgan while she plays in France until June, there was a real question about who would be scoring goals for the club regularly. Now, Marta provides an answer, as the Brazilian is capable of scoring herself and creating opportunities for those around her.
If Marta's stint in Orlando goes well for her, both on the field and in attracting endorsements, the league's conservative approach of using a salary cap may look less a barrier to bringing in stars. The league needs to be fiscally conservative to prevent the budget issues that forced the previous two U.S. women's pro leagues to fold. Marta was reportedly paid $400,000 when she played stateside for the WPS, which folded in 2012.
But the NWSL is positioning itself differently than previous leagues. It's growing slowly and allowing the quality of the league to do the heavy lifting. When the Portland Thorns acquired France's Amandine Henry last year in what was then the biggest international signing to date, Henry said she came stateside to become a better player.
Now Marta will make the league better and more competitive, and she just might prove that the league's slower approach to building is working in the long-term. That is a pretty big deal.
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