Seattle’s second designated player will be summer signing Blaise Nkufo.
In his Sounders Insider blog, Don Ruiz of the Tacoma News Tribune relayed a conversation with General Manager Adrian Hanauer. Hanauer explained that having Nkufo on the books as a DP will save the team valuable space under the league’s salary budget.
Hanauer must manage the budget closely, since Seattle already has another DP-caliber player on the books in goalkeeper Kasey Keller. MLS salary numbers for 2010 are not out yet, but the club figures to have saved some space when it failed to reach an agreement with defender Jeff Parke.
According to a league statement issued on April 1, “If a Designated Player joins a club's roster in the middle of the season, that club's salary budget for the year will be charged $167,500.”
No other teams in the league have added a second designated player since the rule change was announced at the beginning of the month.
There are currently no indications that Seattle is planning to do purchase a third designated player spot from the league. Nkufo, who is currently playing for Steve McClaren at Holland’s FC Twente, will join Seattle after representing Switzerland in the 2010 World Cup.
