Sounders FC's Freddie Ljungberg enjoys the quiet life in America

Freddie Ljungberg came strolling into the lobby of the Four Seasons hotel Tuesday afternoon looking as cool as the breezes off Elliott Bay. White T-shirt, bluejeans, ice-blue eyes, and a subtle confidence that turned heads as he made his way into the hotel's restaurant.

The marquee player for America's nouveau soccer sensation, Sounders FC, Ljungberg has been the perfect player, the perfect personality, exactly the right choice, to sell the game and sell this team to this city.

He has been the eye of the hurricane in the Sounders' midfield, able to control the flow of the game and put passes on the heads and the boots of his younger, less experienced teammates.

But he also has brought a kind of Euro-sophistication to this team that manifests itself, on the field, in the composed way he plays the game, never hurrying, but always a split-second away from creating something magical.

He is the calming influence on a team still learning how to play — a violin concerto thrown into the middle of a headbangers' ball, the camomile tea after a can of Red Bull. He is the on-field leader of coach Sigi Schmid's band.

And, at $1.3 million, this year, he has been the steal of the MLS season for the expansion Sounders, who are hanging on to the Western Conference's second place.

Ljungberg sat down for a lunch of sashimi tuna Tuesday, the day before the sold out friendly with FC Barcelona at Qwest Field, and talked about his life in football and his first season in America.

"One thing I've learned is that you have to be open-minded," Ljungberg said. "We know it's a new game here. We know it's the new game on the market. And we [foreign players] have to change a little bit.

"When I talked with [Sounders' majority owner] Joe Roth before I came here, he told me, 'You have to be going forward. You have to entertain. It's America. We need to score goals.' In the end, I took a little bit of a gamble. I trusted what Joe Roth told me about the game in this country and it's worked out."

When Roth was recruiting Ljungberg, he pitched the idea that Seattle was an especially soccer-literate city. Roth told him about the high percentage of soccer-playing people in the community. He sold the idea that this city was ready for the game.

"I've been overwhelmed by the city and the fans and the way they've embraced me and the team," Ljungberg said. "That's what's surprised me the most. The level with which they've embraced me. And they know the game here. Everything's been first rate."

Signing Ljungberg, along with goalkeeper Kasey Keller, gave the Sounders instant star power. Ljungberg is his own force field, a celebrity whose Calvin Klein underwear ads were bigger than life on billboards worldwide.

In Europe, he draws paparazzi who go after him as ravenously as center-backs. Who he is dating and what he is wearing is important stuff for tabloids.

He has been offered several movie roles, including one as a gigolo, but hasn't yet read anything that made him feel comfortable. He also is interested in fashion design and is thinking of that career as part of his post-soccer game plan.

But with the Sounders, he lives a more tranquil life. He has a home on Hunts Point and spends more time looking at the water than he does hanging in the clubs.

Eating at a restaurant overlooking the Sound, there was no fuss over him. Only Barcelona's Thierry Henry briefly visited. The whirlwind has calmed in the States and Ljungberg, who signed a two-year deal with the Sounders, admitted he has enjoyed the peacefulness of his five months in Seattle.

"It's been really nice, refreshing here," he said. "I can walk around. There is not a lot of paparazzi. That's part of my life in the rest of the world, but here I go out on my boat. I relax. It's much different.

"I don't want to sound bigheaded or anything, but when you reach a certain level of recognition or fame, or whatever you want to call it, when you're young the first couple of years you think, 'Oh, this is fun.' But now, I kind of stay away from it. If there's a back door somewhere, I take it. I try to get about without being noticed.

"I like my privacy. I'm quite shy in that way. I won't look at those billboards. I don't want to see it. The [underwear] ads contradict, a little bit, who I am. It's a little weird, really."

Still at 32, Ljungberg, soccer star, underwear model, international celebrity, has a pretty good life going on.

"I'm not complaining," he said.

His charge with the Sounders has been to make the game attractive, to push the attack and set up scoring chances for players such as Fredy Montero and Nate Jaqua. He scored 48 goals in 10 seasons in the English Premier League, but he came here to be a server more than a scorer.

He has sacrificed his scoring to get teammates involved. He has scored two goals in 13 games for Seattle.

Ljungberg is here to promote as well as produce. He is here to grow the MLS, to make it more competitive with the already-full plate of American sports.

"When you're in high school here and a star, you're talking about the money that is there in basketball or American football, or baseball, so those players choose basketball or football and not soccer," Ljungberg said. "There's a better future there. For soccer, it's important for us to change that a little bit. Get to another level so that great athletes, they will pick soccer instead.

"Then we get to the level where we produce [Michael] Jordans here. The potential is here for sure. That what we're trying to promote, so that we can get those great athletes to really get hooked into the game."

Ljungberg said he gets a lot of calls from players in Europe asking him about the MLS and wondering if they should make the same move he made.

"I tell them [the caliber] is better than what a lot of people in Europe told me," he said. "I think we're even with the Dutch league. But I also tell them you better come over here with a very open mind. Do your homework.

"You can't come and get disappointed if the ball isn't coming exactly where you're used to having it come. That's part of the deal. That's why we're here. To educate. Don't get frustrated.

"And I tell them that my experience here in Seattle has been amazing. I could never have dreamed of the way the fans have embraced me. But it's different, because in England soccer is a religion. When people see you they can get hysterical. They can shake and cry when they see you. It's not on that level here. That's nice."

Unlike David Beckham, who is trying to juggle playing for the L.A. Galaxy, A.C. Milan and the English national team, Ljungberg came to Seattle single-minded.

Despite a 10-year career in England and a résumé that includes two league titles and three FA Cups with Arsenal and two World Cup appearances for Sweden, he isn't at the end of his road in Europe.

He still could play in the Premiership. He has gotten calls inquiring about his availability, but he said he is staying.

"I just think there is so much growing here, with the crowds and everything," he said. "I've always been seen by people as a little different, wearing Mohawk haircuts and this and that. I do sometimes look at things in a different way.

"A lot of people said I was an idiot to come to America so early in my career. But I just felt if I was going to do it, I should do it now and be a bit more sincere and come over here when I still can run. I felt, for the credibility of the game in America, I should go now. That's what I'm trying to achieve. I do care. I care about this team. I want to win."

Freddie Ljungberg is cool, but even after all he has achieved, his passion for his sport still smolders.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com.