João Paulo appears to have played his final match for the Seattle Sounders. The veteran defensive midfielder announced on Instagram that he was “moving on”, following a report by Niko Moreno that the Sounders had declined to pick up his option in 2026.
The 34-year-old ended up logging fewer than 700 minutes across all competitions this year, struggling to get on the field in the first half of the season and then suffering a knee injury that forced him out for more than three months shortly after the Club World Cup.
That was more of a commentary on how Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer chose to use his midfield bench than the Brazilian's effectiveness. The Sounders went 4-1-2 in João Paulo's starts, including two early standout performances and two late performances when he was paired with Danny Leyva.
Good as it was to have a veteran performer off the bench, though, João Paulo was likely due a raise on the $625,000 he made in guaranteed compensation this year (which itself was less than half of what he was making in 2024). With the core of the roster mostly on guaranteed contracts for 2026, João Paulo's spot was one of the few that gave the Sounders some salary-cap flexibility.
Sounder at Heart has learned that João Paulo given an opportunity to remain with the Sounders as part of the organization's coaching staff, an offer that was first made over the summer when it looked like he had torn his ACL. But after tests revealed that his injury was not nearly as serious and he was able to successfully return, the Brazilian wasn't quite as ready to hang up his boots.
Although there are plenty of examples of older players remaining effective, they do face an uphill battle. Among the 10 older defensive midfielders who got MLS minutes this year, none played fewer minutes than João Paulo.
Whatever João Paulo chooses to do next, he'll be remembered as arguably one of top defensive midfielders in MLS history, at least at his peak. In 2021, he finished third in MLS MVP voting, perhaps the only time a defensive midfielder has been named a finalist for the award.
While not necessarily a very purely defensive midfielder, what made João Paulo stand out was how he good he was going forward. With Nicolás Lodeiro missing most of 2021 with injuries, João Paulo finished with three goals and 11 assists in MLS play to supplement his more defensive-oriented stats. His duality was perhaps best exemplified by his solo goal against the Colorado Rapids that year, which was often compared to Marshawn Lynch's "Beast Quake" touchdown.
But an ACL injury – suffered during the Concacaf Champions League final – forced him to miss most of 2022 and he was never quite the same player after that. He ended up playing more than 10,000 minutes with eight goals and 17 primary assists for the Sounders, all easily the most he had for any team during his professional career.
