But soccer is her true language.
Her incomparable skills were evident long before she left home to try her luck first with a Brazilian club for two years and then with one of Europe's leading women's teams, Umea IK of Sweden, for the last five years.
"They say that my father was a very good soccer player, but I never saw him play," said Marta, who, along with two older brothers and an older sister, was raised, in humble circumstances, primarily by her mother.
Marta's soccer knowledge came not only from playing, she said, but by watching Brazil's never-ending procession of World Cup standouts. She rattled off the names: Rivaldo, Romario, Ronaldo and Kaka. "I tried to watch each of them and observe them and take a little bit from each of them," she said.
Now her name ranks among them. After she had led Brazil to its Pan American Games gold medal victory over the U.S. in front of 67,788 in Rio de Janeiro in 2007, she became the first female player to leave her footprints in the walk of fame at the stadium.
Even Pele called to congratulate her.
"It's always been a dream of mine to be the best player in the world," Marta said. "I've always played. Even when I was little, it was my favorite activity."
Unlike another of her favorite players, Ronaldinho, who invariably plays with a smile, Marta is more serious.
"I'm always reading the game. The expression on my face is more of concentration and focus," she said.
Her fame, meanwhile, is worldwide.
"We flew from Rio de Janeiro to Panama City to L.A.," said her agent, Fabiano Farah, who is also Ronaldo's agent. "The whole crew was from Panama, where soccer is not that popular, but they all wanted to see Marta, and two guys asked for a picture."
Marta takes it in stride.
"I go wherever I like and do the things I like to do," she said. "I don't really let it get to me."
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grahame.jones@latimes.com
