Waylon Francis called in to Costa Rica national team

Waylon Francis’ status with the Seattle Sounders doesn’t quite seem settled, but his reputation is apparently still good enough that he’s getting called in to the Costa Rica national team. The left back was one of 24 players named to Costa Rica’s roster for their upcoming friendly with the United States on Feb. 2.

Although Francis has seven national team caps, he’s not made an appearance since Feb. 2, 2016. All of his caps came between 2014 and 2016 and included three World Cup appearances. Those appearances also coincided with his best run of MLS form, when he had 13 assists in about 4,400 minutes from 2014-2015 with the Columbus Crew.

Since coming to the Sounders in a trade last offseason, Francis has struggled to regain that kind of form. Francis played a career-low 582 minutes last year, which included just five starts.

Francis at times seemed frustrated with his role, but he did play in four consecutive matches down the stretch, including a substitute appearance in the first leg of the Western Conference semifinals.

There had been rumors that Herediano were interested in bringing him back to Costa Rica. That move appears to be virtually dead now, though, as Herediano was apparently only interested if the Sounders were willing to pick up 60 percent of his contract. More likely, Francis will report to Sounders training camp once he’s done with Costa Rica and compete for minutes with Nouhou and Brad Smith at left back.