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After wrapping up a trial with Hibernian FC in Scotland Aaron Kovar, is now off to Cardiff City in Wales. Cardiff is currently 22nd in the Championship and was in the Premier League as recently as 2013-14.
Still, Garth Lagerwey sounded optimistic that Kovar would return to the Sounders for the 2017 season.
“He’s done this every year,” Lagerwey said about Kovar’s overseas training stints. “He's got an Irish passport and he likes taking those opportunities to train in offseason. He's a kid we like and think can continue to improve and hope to give him an opportunity.”
In past seasons Kovar went on trial with Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday.
The left midfield situation with Cardiff is cluttered and unclear with seven different players starting a league match there. Their most well known left mid in the US would be Canadian Junior Hoilett. They are currently in danger of relegation, again.
Kovar signed with the Sounders after leaving Stanford as a sophomore in 2014. This was, by far, his best MLS season as he made 16 first-team appearances and 10 starts. He also scored his first MLS goal, but a clavicle injury helped limit him to just one substitute appearance after a July 17 loss to the Portland Timbers.
Victor Mansaray may be loaned
Lagerwey said the club still doesn’t know where the 19-year-old Homegrown Player will be next year but it likely won’t be playing with the first team, “He's an option we took and we have to get him regular games, that's the next step. Whether that's at S2 or on loan somewhere, that's what we're exploring.”
Darwin Jones moving on
Garth confirmed that Jones was released, making no mention of the young UW product’s future. Jones will likely try to follow the path of former HGP Sean Okoli who went to New England, then won the USL MVP with Cincinnati and parlayed that into a deal with New York City FC.