Obed Vargas has already put together a list of accomplishments that many professional players will envy at the end of their careers. At just 20 years old, the Alaskan phenom has played a pivotal role in a Concacaf Champions League title, helped to shut down Leo Messi as the Seattle Sounders won Leagues Cup, played in an All-Star Game, a Club World Cup, two U-20 World Cups — once for the U.S. and most recently for Mexico — and earned a cap with the senior Mexican National Team. But if you watch him play, what stands out above and beyond what he’s already done on the pitch is the seemingly unlimited potential for what he could go on to do in the future.
Vargas’ journey from Anchorage, Alaska to Seattle has been well-documented, but as the Sounders prepare for the 2025 playoffs with the midfielder as a key component of their MLS Cup hopes it still warrants some repeating if only to highlight and contextualize his explosive growth.
Vargas grew up playing soccer in Anchorage, where his father first moved from Michoacán in Mexico after his own football career ended with C.D. Morelia’s youth team. Vargas’ obvious talent eventually captured the attention of the Sounders, who brought him to Seattle to join the academy at 14, and he quickly progressed through Seattle’s development system upon arrival.
Speaking with the Major League Soccer series Breakaway, Vargas explained, “I knew I was the best player here in Alaska. But I didn’t know how far that was going to get me.”
Exactly how far that gets him still remains to be seen, with a likely move to Europe and a possible role in the Mexico National Team at the World Cup coming next year. But how he makes that journey will almost certainly follow the same pattern Vargas has established up to this point, a path that bears more than a passing resemblance to another Alaskan export.
Alaskan king crabs are the largest species of king crabs, with the ability to at least theoretically continue growing as long as resources, space and time allow. That is to say, given the opportunity in the proper environment a king crab would just keep on growing, shedding their shell, and growing some more, on and on until some outside force interrupts the process.
With each move to a new environment or new team, Vargas has shown an ability to adapt to his new circumstances, molting and shedding his shell to grow into a form better suited to his new surroundings. Beyond the skill and physical abilities necessary to continually climb to higher and higher levels of competition, going from playing in Alaska to the Sounders Academy, to Tacoma Defiance and on to the Sounders first team and beyond, he has also shown a remarkable knack for being coachable, taking feedback, recognizing the places where he can continue to improve, and then actually turning all of that into better performances on the field.
"Obed is a guy who, he loves to play. He loves soccer,” explained long-time teammate and one-time roommate Cody Baker. “One thing above all is, he loves to compete. On the field, off the field, whatever he’s doing, you could be playing video games with him, and he wants to win." It's this consistent piece of his personality, not simply something that engages when he steps on the field that helps to propel him forward. "I think that's one of the reason he stays so consistent, because whether it's training, whatever it is, he wants to be the best, and he always wants to compete."
