With a flurry of moves in December, the Seattle Sounders seem to have gotten most of their big business done before the New Year. If preseason were to start tomorrow, in fact, I think they could reasonably say they are a little better than they were last year and at the very least no worse.
To recap: They’ve parted ways with Danny Leyva, João Paulo, Jon Bell and Ryan Kent; they re-signed Paul Rothrock and Stefan Frei; and added Hassani Dotson, Ryan Sailor and Max Anchor.
Still, there are some notable questions they’ll need to answer before the start of next season. Here’s what I’ll be watching:
What happens to Obed Vargas?
The Sounders deserve immense credit for discovering and developing Obed Vargas into arguably the best 20-year-old in MLS. They recruited him for a lightly-regarded club in Alaska — a state that had never produced a high-level soccer player — immediately recognized his talent and put him on the pro pathway at 15. By 16, he was starting for the Sounders and famously played a significant role in their Concacaf Champions League title.
Fast forward four years and Vargas is now an established pro, is getting regular calls into the Mexican national team, and is in contention to make their World Cup roster.
He’s also going into the final year of his first MLS contract, which puts the Sounders in a somewhat awkward position. If he doesn’t re-sign, he could ultimately leave the Sounders on a free transfer at the end of the year. While getting one more year of an exceptional talent on a bargain deal isn’t the worst conceivable outcome, it’s also one that the Sounders would surely like to avoid.
That leaves them with two other options: Either convince him to sign a new contract soon or transfer him at what is surely significantly less than the eight-figure fee they could otherwise expect to receive.
By most accounts, Vargas and his camp have decided they are no longer interested in a new contract with the Sounders, which means the Sounders probably need to seriously consider virtually any offer they receive. If they can get at least $2.3 million with a significant sell-on percentage, I think they’ll likely accept. That would allow them to max out the $3 million in transfer fees they can convert into GAM in a single year (they already got about $700,000 from Danny Leyva’s transfer to Necaxa) and still have some upside that could potentially be used for future transfer fees. It’s not an ideal outcome but it does right by both the player and club.
Can they close the deal on a U22 attacker?
The Sounders have plenty of attacking depth right now. They are returning 95% of their goal contributions from last year and are at least two deep at basically every position.
While they might not need to roll the dice on a U22 attacker, I’d argue that this is the perfect time to do just that. As much as they’ve talked about only bringing in someone who will compete for minutes right away, the reality is that U22’s simply aren’t finished products almost by definition. While there are exceptions to this rule, they generally take some time to settle and often don’t come good for a year.
I will admit that some of the players they’ve pursued do seem capable of competing for minutes immediately, but that they’ve failed to close the deal on any of them illustrates just how hard it is to actually sign that type of player.
At times, the Sounders’ insistence on finding this sort of unicorn player who is both within their price range and capable of contributing right away feels almost designed to keep them from signing any player.
Rather than be cynical, though, I’m going to assume their insistence on signing that type of player was more about their larger concern with injuries last year and their belief that they couldn’t afford a project player while literally relying on third stringers to play significant minutes.
As things stand now, I don’t even know where a U22 could be expected to compete for minutes right away. At forward, the Sounders are legitimately three deep with Jordan Morris, Danny Musovski and Osaze De Rosario. With Paul Arriola back in the fold, the Sounders are two deep at both wings even with Pedro de la Vega out to start the season. Jesús Ferreira gives them a quality backup No. 10.
I think this all shapes up as a good opportunity to bring in a raw but talented attacking player.
Is there a market for Danny Musovski or Nouhou?
The Sounders aren’t hard against the salary cap right now — we estimate that they have about $1 million of flexibility — but they are at the point where real difference makers are probably out of their reach. Like I said earlier, that’s not the worst thing. This is a roster that I think will compete for trophies even if they don’t make any more big moves.
But if they do want to improve their roster, they likely need to make some space by moving players who are already here. The two top candidates are likely Danny Musovski and Nouhou.
Musovski is coming off a career year in which he had 18 goals and five assists across all competitions. His rate stats were literally elite, ranking in the 94th percentile for non-penalty goals and the 98th percentile for non-penalty xG. Now, he’s expected to get called into North Macedonia’s national team for their World Cup qualifying playoff.
Nouhou is coming off another solid season where he held off various challengers to once again establish himself as a first-choice left back, even after a spate of red cards that put the Sounders in tough spots. Now, he’s been the captain of Cameroon’s national team at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Both started the Sounders’ last two games during the playoffs — which suggests they are at least in contention to be starters in 2026 — but might also be deemed expendable as they are entering the final year of their contracts. Of the two, Nouhou is probably going to be harder to move as getting value for him could be tough considering they’ve been open to moving him for several years and have never received an offer that came close to meeting their valuation.
Musovski’s value, though, has never been higher. The underlying numbers suggest his production wasn’t a total fluke, but they also represented a near doubling of his previous career high (which notably came when he was still playing in the USL Championship). I imagine the Sounders would be reluctant to sign him to a big-money extension, especially with Jordan Morris likely ahead of him and De Rosario pressuring him for backup minutes. Might someone else be willing to give him a new deal? It seems entirely possible.
Musovski’s 2026 contract likely guarantees him close to $600,000 as it is, and bringing in at least $500,000 in a GAM trade seems exceptionally doable. Another $1.1 million in cap flexibility opens a lot of options.
Who is the starting goalkeeper in 2026?
Stefan Frei has been the nearly unchallenged starter for the Sounders since 2014, when he first joined the team via a laughably lop-sided trade from Toronto FC. But there’s been signs that the Sounders are readying for that to change.
In 2024, Andrew Thomas made 13 starts across all competitions, mostly playing in the U.S. Open Cup and Leagues Cup. Last year, Thomas got 17 starts, again mostly in the ancillary competitions. But he also had a couple iconic performances, which included winning Goalkeeper of the Tournament in Leagues Cup, and then came off the bench to nearly deliver a dramatic shootout win in the playoffs.
It all seems to line up for Thomas to be the starter in 2026, and I think he’s earned that opportunity, but I also think he’s going to have to prove it all over again. Frei is back, albeit at a reduced number, and surely isn’t going to just stand aside.
On a lot of teams, this could be a problem. For the Sounders, though, I think it will be fine. Thomas and Frei have been teammates for four years and seem to have a genuinely solid working relationship. I believe both ultimately want what is best for the team. Having two goalkeepers who have shown an ability to win big games is a good thing, I’d argue.
Will the Sounders add a big-money owner?
Perhaps the single biggest question surrounding the Sounders is only tangentially related to their on-field product. Given that that announcement came during their playoff run and didn’t include any highly visible follow-up interviews, it’s easy to forget that the Sounders are openly seeking new investors.
While it’s possible this could be a change that has little immediate consequence, I strongly suspect it’s just the first step in what could be something that forever alters the direction of the club, as it could have serious impacts on both where they ultimately set down roots and how much they’re able to keep up with the quickly changing economics of MLS.
Through their first 17 seasons in MLS, no team has been more consistent than the Sounders with eight major trophies and only once finishing outside the top third of the Supporters’ Shield standings. They’ve also done this while running something like a sustainable business.
But to maintain this level of achievement, I strongly suspect they are going to need to be willing and able to take some bigger short-term losses. That is only likely to come if more deep-pocketed owners take a significant chunk of that risk.
As of yet, we’ve heard absolutely nothing about who might be interested in joining the Sounders’ ownership group. I can only hope that they understand that a big part of what has made the Sounders so successful is their connection to the community and will find ways to increase investment without losing the club’s soul.
