The Seattle Sounders on Thursday formally announced the signing of Jordan Morris at a press conference at the club’s headquarters at The Ninety. This comes just days after it had been reported that Morris had declined a contract with Bundesliga’s Werder Bremen and decided he wanted to begin his professional career in the United States.
Morris, who is from the Seattle area, joined the Sounders Academy for the 2012-2013 season before he went on to Stanford. He has spent the last three years playing for the Cardinal and making seven appearances with the US Men’s National Team. This past season Morris had 13 goals in 18 matches including picking up a brace in the Final to help Stanford win their first men’s soccer national championship.
"I'm thrilled that Jordan decided to go pro. This is the really important decision. And I'm thrilled with the Sounders, that he goes into an environment that he knows, that he feels comfortable with, and that he feels now that, at this specific point in time, this is the best move for me.” USMNT head coach Jurgen Klinsmann told ESPN FC Wednesday in an exclusive interview.
"[Morris] feels he's not ready for Europe. He feels the next big step for him is the Sounders where he knows everybody, and for us it's great because the moment he steps now on the training field he's in a professional environment. That's good."
Prior to the signing, it had been reported by Garth Lagerwey, GM and President of Soccer, that Seattle had offered Morris the richest homegrown player contract ever and said ‘it’s up to Jordan’ if he wants to play here. Well today was that day for Morris and Seattle.
The press conference was attended by Sounders majority owner Adrian Hanauer, Lagerwey, head coach Sigi Schmid and Sporting Director Chris Henderson.
It was still unclear up until this week if Morris was going to stay in Germany or come back to the US and play for Seattle. The challenge that may have kept him away would have been potential lack of playing time with the Rave Green as he’ll be competing with Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins for time at the top however as we saw late last season, if needed Dempsey could move back to the midfield role when called upon.