RENTON – Finding Caden Clark highlights is actually not very hard. The 23-year-old midfielder has plenty of impressive moments and has scored his fair share of goals at his various stops in what is already a seven-year professional career.
But a soccer career is made up of far more than highlights. The bones of any lengthy career are made in the moments that rarely make for nice clips, often not even caught on film at training sessions or in conversations with coaches. That's also what makes it difficult to ascertain exactly where a career may have gone wrong.
There’s clearly some sort of disconnect when it comes to Clark, who will now be playing for his eighth professional team and is making his sixth stop in the last five years.
The Seattle Sounders seem well aware that they are acquiring a bit of a distressed asset.
"I had a conversation with him this morning about why it didn’t work here, here, and here, and I got right to the business part of it," Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer told the media following Thursday's training session. "His answers were honest.
"I think he’s genuinely happy to be here. I think he views this as a big opportunity for him to come here to an established club."
A new piece in the midfield 🧩
— Sounders FC (@soundersfc.com) September 3, 2026 at 9:30 AM
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Once such a promising teenage prospect that he earned a move to the Bundesliga with RB Leipzig, Clark has seen his perceived value plummet considerably.
This year at D.C. United, Clark only appeared in seven games, didn’t make a start, and hasn’t logged a single minute since April. A few days ago, it was widely reported that Clark was going back to the New York Red Bulls in a trade. But the Red Bulls pulled out, perhaps gambling that he’d be available for next to nothing if D.C. United waived him.
Instead, the Sounders picked him up for the cost of a second-round pick in the 2028 SuperDraft and won’t even have to pay the discretionary portion of his U22 salary. If they decide to keep him beyond the guaranteed portion of his contract that runs through December 2026, they’ll only need to send D.C. United an additional $50,000 in General Allocation Money.
Clark seems to now appreciate that his career is in need of some rehabilitation.
"I’ve been on the sidelines too long this year, so I’m full of energy," Clark said. "I’m fresh, ready to go. I've still got young legs, I just want to get on the field, try to prove a point, but also just be a good teammate, do whatever the team needs, and just do anything I can to to add a little push."
There’s some clear upside potential, too. As you might imagine for a player who came through the Red Bull system, Clark is a willing runner and not afraid to get into a tackle, especially for someone who tends to play higher up the pitch. He grades out well in terms of physical attributes like distance covered and number of sprints.
He’s also a skilled attacker. Although it has been more than a year since his last goal contribution, he does have 11 goals and 19 assists in about 5,800 career MLS minutes (.47 g+a per 90 minutes). In the two months following his trade to CF Montreal in 2024, Clark had four goals and four assists in about 675 minutes. If he can come close to replicating that, the Sounders would be absolutely thrilled.
"Let's get him into training; let's figure out if he’s coachable, if he’s a smart soccer player, see if he puts the work in, make sure that we check all those boxes as to why he hasn’t found a home," Schmetzer said. "Then we can discuss tactics and where he plays and how he plays a little bit differently. We’re looking at him with open eyes.
"He’s got to come and do the business first. If he does that, he’ll have an opportunity to play."
Injury updates
- Paul Arriola has been cleared to participate in Saturday's game against the Red Bulls, while Cristian Roldan, Jordan Morris and Hassani Dotson are all expected to be fully available after coming off the bench last week. There were no updated timelines on Jackson Ragen, Yeimar Gomez Andrade or Jesús Ferreira.
- Pedro de la Vega underwent successful surgery to repair a torn tendon in an upper-leg muscle and is expected to be out 4–5 months.
