SEATTLE – The future of the Seattle Sounders is a little clearer on two fronts following the team’s season-wrapping press conference Thursday at CenturyLink Field.
The most notable announcement concerned head coach Sigi Schmid, who has been signed to a multi-year contract extension.
“I am very excited and happy today to announce we’ve signed a multi-year deal with Sigi,” Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer said. “Sigi will be around for the foreseeable future. We’re very happy to have him as a coach. I’ve said it many times: not only a fantastic coach, but a fantastic person, great person, in the community and someone I’m proud to call a friend of mine.”
Schmid’s extension comes on the heels of Seattle’s most successful season since it joined MLS, with the club racking up 20 league wins, the US Open Cup title and the Supporters’ Shield trophy.
Seattle’s season did end in disappointment after the Sounders were eliminated in the Western Conference Championship by the LA Galaxy, but the overall success of the club turned out to be more than enough reason for Seattle to lock up Schmid, who has coached the team since its inaugural MLS season in 2009.
“It’s great to continue to be able to work with this organization,” Schmid said. “It’s something I’m looking forward and I’m extremely excited about. … I still enjoy [coaching]. I still love it. I still like being around the game, I still like being around the players. … But more so than anything, the beauty of coaching is: No game is the same, and no year is the same.”
The Sounders also updated the transfer status of right back DeAndre Yedlin, whom they agreed to transfer to Tottenham Hotspur earlier this season. Yedlin’s move to Tottenham was a foregone conclusion, but until Thursday the timetable for exactly when it would take place had not been clarified.
Hanauer said Thursday that, as long as Yedlin can successfully secure a work permit, he could join Tottenham as soon as the end of this month.
Questions surrounding the work-permit issue were the last hurdle that could have delayed the transfer, agreed after the 21-year-old defender made an international name for himself with three substitute appearances for the US national team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Now the Sounders can begin focusing on the tall task of replacing Yedlin’s dynamic and unique skill-set.
“I wouldn’t say it’s 100-percent at this point, but it seems highly, highly likely that DeAndre will get a work permit to be able to play in England,” Hanauer said. “He’s anticipated to be heading over to Tottenham in the middle or end of December.”
