Women’s Pro Soccer Eyes World’s Top Star
Brazil’s Marta is considered to be the world’s most dazzling women’s soccer player, but does the new U.S. women’s league stand a chance of signing her for its inaugural season? Women’s Professional Soccer Commissioner Tonya Antonucci thinks so.
“She’s indicated interest in coming to WPS, which is fantastic,” Antonucci said.
Marta will be the center of attention this morning in Beijing when her team, Brazil, squares off against the U.S. women’s national team in the gold-medal match of the 2008 Olympics.
It’s the first meeting between the two teams at a major competition since Brazil pummeled the U.S. 4-0 in the 2007 World Cup. The game will showcase some of the biggest stars in women’s soccer, from Brazil’s Marta, Cristaine and Daniela to the U.S.’s Heather O’Reilly, Angela Hucles and Lori Chalupny.
Antonucci and WPS are hoping that there’s enough tune-in for the 9 a.m. match to make some of those players household names. The league hopes to select several of those players for its inaugural season during a signing period in mid-September.
Whether or not they’re able to sign all of them remains to be seen. Marta is considered the world’s most valuable female player, and some question whether or not the league will be able to sign her. She’s currently playing in Europe with Swedish club Umea IK.
“We feel like we have a budget to attract the top players,” Antonucci said. “We think we’ll be able to make attractive offers and we’re excited to go do that.”
The Olympics have helped the WPS begin to build some buzz for its new league. At the beginning of the tournament, the league launched an online community for fans of women’s soccer. Fans can chat and submit videos to be rated by Brandi Chastain.
Since its debut, the site has grown from zero to 600 members.
“We’ve seen a lot of quick growth,” Antonucci said.
The league has been pleased with the viewership information it has received on U.S. women’s soccer matches so far. The semifinals of the U.S.-Japan game was the sixth-highest-viewed video on NBCOlympics.com on Monday.
For the most part, though, Antonucci said the league has honored the tournament and tried to stay out of the limelight. Its focus for now is on the players and hoping that they begin to become names that people follow once the league debuts next year.
