Following Stanford’s College Cup victory, Jordan Morris is reportedly set to take the next step in his college career.
Goal USA is reporting that Morris has made the decision to begin his professional career by foregoing his senior year with the Cardinal. Morris is reportedly in advanced negotiations with the Seattle Sounders, who are pushing for the U.S. Men’s National Team forward by offering the largest Homegrown contract in league history.
The 21-year-old, who scored a pair of goals in Stanford’s College Cup triumph, is expected to take part in the upcoming USMNT January camp. In 2015, Morris made seven senior international appearances while also establishing himself as a major part of the U.S. Under-23 Men’s National Team’s Olympic push.
What do you think of this development? Happy to hear he will leave college and turn pro? Think MLS is the right move for him, or think he should be heading to Europe?
Share your thoughts below.
Why does Ives break all his stories on Goal.com nowadays then have “his” site link to his story with a synopsis?
Because GOAL PAYS him. Why do people complain about this? This is a free site. Unless YOU can figure out how he can put food on his family’s table by SBI alone, stop b*tching.
Fairly sure SBI “pays him” too through a number of methods. For the record, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with drewvt6 asking a completely legitimate question when considering the declining state SBI is within since Ives left to Goal.com.
Unfortunately, Goal.com is pretty horrible too. The design seems quite janky and has so for many years.
I’d like to see him go to Leicester City. With Vardy, their offense is based around having speed up top and LC will have European football next season (at some level) and would be able to use another speedy forward as back up. He’d get some playing time and wouldn’t be at a club too big to develop him.
Except Vardy is already a well-rounded striker (or as well-round as he’ll ever be; he’s really a one trick pony). Morris is very one-dimensional, and will need to round out his game and grow tactically. We need him to be more like Lewandowski (who also was one-dimensional at Lech Poznan before Klopp made him play CAM for a year) and less like Andy Carroll, which unfortunately won’t happen at Leicester.
Believe me, as a pro/rel supporter, I love LC’s rise to the top of English football, but it won’t last. They employ bunker and counter tactics, which is no longer a recipe for long-term success, just ask Bob Bradley. It might give you a good run, like LC’s first half of the season or USMNT Confed Cup ’09, but it’s a system dependent on exploiting your opponents mistakes, and not creating your own opportunity’s. Its not the playing style we want Morris to learn.
So is this another fake Homegrown signing by MLS?
How many years did he spend w Sounders Academy 1,2,3 years..
Yedellin isn’t a real Academy product. He spent like 1 year there. I hate how MLS teams can claim a young simply if the player farted in the facility..
Seriously, Homegrown players should be players who Spent Many Years with the club… At least 5 years. Ridiculous how loosely the term “Homegrown” is used..
Actually it’s a very good rule. It ensures a player has an option of joining and staying at a club without getting drafted out. It also allows for players on a HG contract to get paid more because it doesn’t come out of the Salary cap. Also, it’s only been recently that there’s been U13, U16, and U18 academies so to say at least 5 years is asking a little much of a new youth system that’s just been implemented in the last few years. All in all I think it’s been an improvement on the Generation Adidas or an expansion of the idea anyway.
I don’t know about the Academy, but he went to USL games when his Dad was team doctor for the Sounders 7 or more years ago. Can’t get much more homegrown than that.
I agree with your premise, but that happens at EVERY club world-wide. We give a ton of credit to Arsenal for Fabregas’ development, when he actually transferred from Barca to Arsenal at 16 and an academy-player, and got his first cap for the first-team about a month later.
What I do get mad about, is not providing any contribution to player development. At least Barca received something to cover the costs of Fabregas’ development. MLS/Seattle kept all the transfer fee paid by Tottenham, and gave none to Crossfire, who had developed Yedlin for far longer than Seattle Academy.
And people wonder pay-to-play continues to exist.
How is this the next step in his college career?
There is supposed to be new turf installed this off-season at c-link. Morris will get to play on a brand new surface, a new surface should help the team play a lil more attractive style of ball too, hopefully. It’s been painful to watch soccer on such old hard turf, the Seahawks love the matted turf though, they think it is to their advantage speed-wise, rumor has it.
Are any Europen teams even interested in him? I haven’t read about any. Please share links if you have.
I’ve heard rumours range range from lower/mid-table EPL to 2.Bundesliga. I think the EPL ones are false.
2.Bundesliga seems reasonable for a relatively unproven player.. I’ve even heard Eredivisie rumours which seem more plausible than a first-division club in one of the Big 4+1.
I think people are neglecting that Morris is a very smart kid — who goes/went to Stanford. He also grew up in Seattle and probably played on turf his whole life. I think that he knows what he is doing and what is best for him — far more than me or anyone else on this site.
I just hope he gets the $$$. If he shines for Seattle like he has for Stanford and U.S. — which I believe he will — there will be plenty of offers and a significant transfer fee. I am sure that will be considered in his negotiations Seattle
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It’s very refreshing to see only 1 person out of all comments so far saying “only Europe!”. I suppose there are fewer and fewer MLS haters every year (still a lot for my taste though).
You don’t have to be an “MLS hater” to be aware of the fact that the top European leagues have way better track records of developing players. If Morris were to go to, say, a mid-table Dutch, French, German, or Spanish team, he’d be taught by some of the best coaches in the world playing for a system that has a vested interest in developing him (selling him for a big transfer fee to a bigger team and reinvesting that money in the squad…something you can’t do in the MLS because of salary cap rules). World class talent comes out of these leagues every year but in 20 years how many Champions League caliber field players has the MLS produced?
MLS is better than the NCAA but Morris needs something even better.
Sacha was getting regular minutes in UEFA before he came back
Some people just can’t fathom the idea of an American player reaching higher than Stoke City or the Sunderland bench. MLS is good enough for the average American college soccer player. Some of us like to think Morris is more than that.
from academies? Andy Najar is the only one that comes to mind.
Trapp, Zardes, Matzinga, Acosta, Uholla, Hamid, Shipp, Caldwell, Fagúndez, etc and etc. In a few years you’ll notice quite few more coming few the ranks too. It usually takes 2 years for an academy to get into the first team.
*MLS is better than the NCAA*
Thank you Captain Oblivious!
Spend the bypassed senior year in the ham-and-eggs domestic league, score a ton of goals there, and hope it’s good enough for a great 2017 European offer.
Mark Sterling Wright, all those players you just named MIGHT be CL caliber, but until they make the jump, we’ll never know. Just like Dempsey; safe to say he was at least lower-CL Caliber, but having never played in it, its still debatable whether he could’ve held his own against CL heavy-weights.
RBNY, yes Sacha, and now Andy Najar, are getting a lot of minutes in CL for Anderlecht, but that is still traditionally a bottom-feeder club in regards to CL. They consistently make it to the group-stages, but usually fail to make any impact past that point.
The only Americans to make any impact in the CL was Beasley and Kirovski. Beasley (the only MLS alum) actually played a ton for PSV when they made it to the Semis; Kirovski hardly played for BVB in the CL past the group stages, but is still credited as being part of their CL winning squad.
We need to expect more from MLS. Yes, praise MLS for getting as far as it has, but keep raising the bar. With the size of this country, we should literally have dozens more like Sacha, ex-MLSers competing in CL for the Anderlecht’s, Gent’s, FC Copenhegen’s, and the Shakatar-Donetsk’s; and at least a full squad’s worth of players like Beasley, playing for the PSV’s, Porto’s, Marseille’s, Ajax’s, etc., trying to compete and make deep runs into this tournament before we can confidently say MLS is on the level of (development-wise) as second-tier UEFA leagues.
I read a comment on another article that Seattle would be the best place for Morris; that it would maximize his ability to get to and replace Dempsey. WTF. We need to raise our standards past Dempsey/Donovan-level. They were fine players, with real quality, but they are not what should be setting the standard. These are the minimum levels we should be expecting out of future generation, generations who have grown up with an MLS and academies.
As Long As He Plays.
A place like; Seattle, L.A., Portland or Kansas City would have been my ideal places for him to start his professional journey offering a solid foundation and stability. All four are run extremely well.
Good to see him take the next step. Staying his last year in college would have spoke volumes of his desire to excel or simply be comfortable. Positive move whether he stays in MLS his entire career or only stays a few years.
I wouldn’t necessarily call going to a league where he’s already a star and a team where his father is the team doctor a “desire to excel” More like taking the easiest available option. Regardless of how good he gets to be with Seattle there’ll always be the “what could’ve been if he’d only had the balls to go to Europe”
What European clubs were interested in him?
Score goals for one or two years in mls and keep making senior team apps and scoring, Europe will be there and he still only 22 or 23 by then
I know a lot of people on here are think that this had to be a forgone conclusion that he needed to turn pro already but taking soccer out of the equation, he only has one more year to finish his degree at Stanford. I know he can go back and finish or take the necessary classes in the offseason but with schedule demands, that will be tough. As much of a fan of the game as I am, a Stanford degree could ultimately be more beneficial to him over the course of his life. But soccer could be more beneficial, too. I’m simply saying that I understand why it was such a difficult decision for him on whether to stay or go.
Of course a difficult choice. however, If he turns pro now, he will know within a few years if it was a good move and is going to work out. if he waited, he may miss out on development, or the chance all together.
I agree. In this case, he should stay and finish. It’s Stanford. I also think people under value the experience of just being in college for a year. Sometimes that is worth more than future contracts.
Isn’t Stanford on the quarter system ? If yes, Morris should be able to do the Winter term off season. He’ll have his degree in 3yrs
He can finish what little remains for his degree while playing pro, or… whenever… many have done it. The window into pro soccer however, is very limited. Even from a purely economic standpoint, it makes sense. From a soccer standpoint it certainly does. He is most certainly entitled to his own path, but if a pro career is important to him, it would prooooobbbbbably be a good idea to get on with it.
Why did it take so long for someone to mention the turf???
Just really wish is wasn’t going to Seattle. Not that i have a problem with the team, coach or the stellar fan base. It’s that crap surface that he’ll be playing 1/2 his games on. Wonder what his dad (as i understand it ..and Ortho) thinks of the turf there.
HIs dad is the team doctor for the Seattle Sounders… http://www.soundersfc.com/team/staff/dr-michael-morris
Well, that explains a lot on a number of levels.
They’re replacing it and will have to every 4 years. There’s a decent chance he’ll be off to Europe before it gets super terrible again.
The positive development is that he is turning pro….he has proven enough at the college level. I don’t think many European teams rate the college game in the US high if even on the radar at all and judging at the majority of the players that are drafted into MLS sides I can understand why as many don’t even see the field (note that this is likely the same rate as most other American sports drafting from college). His best chance would be to sign with Seattle-they are likely going to pay him more than what he may get in Europe to start and he would likely see more playing time here…prove himself on the field here-if he is as good as US soccer fans hope then 10-15 goals in MLS in season 1 should be a realistic target.
Why have this guy go overseas and struggle for time, when he can shine in the MLS? He can jump to Europe later, once he’s proven himself at the professional level in MLS.
Because Morris has some tactical holes in his game that he needs to develop, and I’m not so sure I trust Sigi (if he’s signing with MLS, it’ll be to Seattle) with that responsibility. Sigi killed Yedlin’s tactical development by letting him attack whenever he wanted; now he’s struggling to learn defensive nuances and attacking cues, when he should be fine tuning his game to eventually trasnfer to a CL squad.
I’m afraid Sigi will do the same to Morris; exploit Morris’ strengths for Seattle’s short-term goals, that will be detrimental for Morris’ long-term development. He already behind some of our players by turning pro a little later; he can’t stumble anymore.
New year. Same anti-MLS craziness by Rob. MLS was a terrible place to start their careers for Dempsey, Howard, Cameron, Guzan, Yedlin, McBride, Bocanegra, Beasley, Altidore etc., etc.
Pretty impressive list by American standards but outside of that it’s not much to brag about.
exactly because Americans are judged based on “getting out” as opposed to making a real, global impact.
By American standards?
Quit whining.
Quick correction: McBride started his career in Germany.
Thanks for the correction. I suppose he didn’t have a choice before MLS 🙂
Technically, McBride started in the A-League with Milwaukee before moving onto Wolfsburg.
Yedellin… Please he spent 1 year with the Sounders Academy.. MLS uses the term Homegrown very loosely.
College or Europe. MLS is known for not helping young players develop to their full potential.
That was true in the past but the culture of the MLS is changing now. With the success of FC Dallas and NYRB, who both rely on developing youth, it’s a sign that youth development is being taken far more seriously.
RBNY has signed a whole bunch of homegrowns, but not necessarily achieved success with them on the field. let’s not lose sight of who is contributing vs who is on the roster. FCD has significantly more involvement and production from homegrowns.
it does take a few years for Homegrown players to develop and there’s no knowing who will be successful or not. However, both FC Dallas and NYRB have had success with putting HG players in their starting 11.
its too bad one the most talented US players of his generation, Benny Feilhaber, didn’t reach full potential until it was developed/realised via Peter Vermes in MLS.
Jozy sure developed well in Europe..
this stuff is absolutes, and can be talked about in sweeping blanket statements…..
PEAK SBI COMMENT SECTION
Jozy, u mean the current record holder for most goals scored in Europe by an American?….
actually that would be Clint Dempsey with 60 goals at Fulham and 12 at Spurs.