Marta will sign with L.A. women's team

Marta, the most accomplished female soccer player in the world, will be playing for the Los Angeles Sol when Women's Professional Soccer launches its inaugural season in March.

Marta Viera da Silva, a Brazilian striker of dazzling skills and better known simply as Marta, is close to finalizing an agreement to play for the Sol and could make the formal announcement at the annual FIFA World Gala in Zurich on Monday.

The 21-year-old forward and her agent, Fabiano Farah, are settling on a contract with AEG that would make Marta the showpiece player in WPS and in all likelihood its highest-paid performer.

No details on the contract have been revealed, and AEG, which also owns the Galaxy, has been reluctant to talk about the negotiations that have been going on for several months.

"We do not have a signed contract," Scott Hanley, vice president of AEG Sports, said Thursday. "Negotiations are moving forward and we hope to have an agreement signed within the next two weeks."

Meanwhile, Marta's current club, Umea IK in Sweden, has given up in its attempt to retain the two-time FIFA women's world player of the year.

Marta won the honor in 2006 and 2007 and is short-listed, along with Germany's Birgit Prinz and Nadine Angerer, Brazil's Cristiane, and England's Kelly Smith, to win it again at the awards ceremony in Switzerland on Monday.

Marta, whose speed, dribbling skills and finishing ability have made her the heir to Mia Hamm as the world's most exciting female player, has played for Umea for five seasons.

"Umea IK and Swedish female football is losing its brightest shining star," the club said in a statement. The Sol will open training camp at the Home Depot Center on March 1. The team's roster already includes such U.S. stars as Shannon Boxx, Aly Wagner and Stephanie Cox.

The league's inaugural game will be played March 29 in Carson and will feature the Sol against the Washington Freedom and its standout player, American forward Abby Wambach.

grahame.jones@latimes.com