RENTON — The Seattle Sounders are preparing for their match against Austin FC on Sunday — and the final stretch of the MLS season beyond that — but for Reed Baker-Whiting and Obed Vargas there’s a separate quest ahead of them following the trip to Texas. They’re two players in very different moments and they’ll be playing for different sides, but both Baker-Whiting and Vargas are headed to play at the U20 World Cup in Chile.
Vargas will join a Mexico U20 team that will rely heavily on his experience. After Mexico won the Concacaf U20 Championship to qualify for the World Cup by going undefeated with five wins and one draw in 2024, they’ve managed to win just once — a shootout win in a friendly back in June against Japan after the game finished 1-1 — in seven games in 2025 as they prepare for the tournament. Vargas is by far the most experienced player on the team — his 11,340 professional minutes are the most among Mexico’s squad by nearly 5,000, and even just counting his 6,977 MLS minutes puts him firmly in front — and he’s played in and won Concacaf Champions League and Leagues Cup finals. He’s a locked in starter for a Sounders side that faced off against Botafogo, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain at the Club World Cup, and never looked out of place.
To add to all of that experience, Vargas has already received a full national team cap. No disrespect to the U20 World Cup and Vargas’ teammates at the tournament, he’s arguably moved beyond playing in this tournament and should be involved with El Tri’s first team. He’s with an age group team instead, perhaps partially because of how difficult Mexico’s group at the World Cup is. Mexico has been drawn into a group that also includes Brazil, Morocco, and Spain. Brazil have won the last two U20 South American Championships, including winning earlier this year. Morocco finished as runners-up in the 2025 U20 Africa Cup of Nations, and Spain is, well, Spain. Their opponents feature teams full of players matriculating through strong domestic leagues and some of Europe’s biggest leagues. Vargas could make a huge difference for Mexico against those opponents!
He even has previous U20 World Cup experience, having played for the United States in 2023, giving him a bit of an elder statesman vibe.
"There's a lot of things I learned from that U20 World Cup," Vargas said. "The whole travel experience, hotels, everything. I've already gone through out and know what to expect."
Still, Vargas’ future seems to lie well beyond where he currently stands. He may just be paying his dues at the moment, but he is a Mexico national teamer and has a real shot at playing in next year’s Men’s World Cup. Similarly, his club future seems to be destined for shores far beyond the Puget Sound. His talent is obvious, and the general consensus has long been that he’ll play in Europe, maybe at a top-5 league. When he stepped on the field against Atleti and PSG, it seemed clear that we were getting a preview of meetings to come and are a big reason why Transfermarkt recently assigned an €8 million valuation to him.
Baker-Whiting will be heading to the U20 World Cup as well, where he’ll join the US team, but with Seattle he’s come to an agreement that ties his future to the Sounders — at least for the next 4 years — with a new deal that makes him a U-22 Initiative player.
“Yeah, U22, let’s take the tag off it,” head coach Brian Schmetzer said when asked about RBW’s new deal after training. “Because that’s just what’s best for the salary cap, all that, I don’t want to put any undue pressure on the kid.”
Baker-Whiting has begun to realize the promise that has had people around the club so excited for him for so long, and good performances and an adaptation to play on either side of the field have made him an obvious player to keep around. While Schmetzer wants to keep expectations reasonable for Baker-Whiting with the weight of the roster designation, he’s a player who can certainly live up to it, and the World Cup could provide a good chance for him to demonstrate that.
