BALTIMORE – MLS Commissioner Don Garber weighed in on the ambiguous professional future of Jordan Morris on Thursday, insisting that the league will do it all can to land the Sounders FC Academy alum back in Seattle this spring.
Morris, the 21-year-old Mercer Island native who led Stanford to the NCAA title in December and was named the top player in college soccer last week, is currently training with Bundesliga side Werder Bremen as he weighs his professional options. The Sounders offered Morris the most lucrative contract for a Homegrown Player in league history last year, but Morris tabled the offer to see out his junior year at Stanford.
Earlier this month he officially said he will forego his senior year and turn pro, and then he departed for Werder Bremen’s winter camp in Turkey.
“We’re following very closely,” Garber told media at the MLS SuperDraft. “We very much want to sign Jordan. I know the Sounders are very focused on it. He's certainly had a great college career. He started playing soccer in Seattle, he has a family member that works for the team [team physician Dr. Michael Morris], and we're very hopeful that we'll be able to bring him into the league and have him represent this great generation of American players that have started and, in many cases - like Landon Donovan - finished their careers in Major League Soccer.”
Morris confirmed on Thursday that he will continue to train with Werder when the club returns to Germany on Saturday following the conclusion of their winter camp.
"I will stay in Bremen for a few days. We'll see what happens after that," Morris told local paper Kreiszeitung. "They are all very good lads. It's always fun to play against strong players. I am happy and excited."
Head coach Viktor Skripnik told reporters he will continue to watch Morris, who has made a strong impression in a short time with the club.
"On the first real day of training, the impressions are very positive," Skripnik said after he saw Morris play in a training match. "I am surprised in which great shape this young man from America is. And he's got a good understanding of football, looks for open spaces."
Morris is set to join the U.S. national team’s January camp later this month.
“I personally haven’t talked to him in a couple of days,” Sounders GM and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey told MLSsoccer.com. “His dad works for us and we talk to him pretty regularly, and guys like Adrian Hanauer and Sigi Schmid have eight, 10-year relationships with the family. I’m confident that we’re gonna have a clear line of communication, but as to what outcome that reaches, I think we just have to respect the process. We have to respect Jordan.”
Lagerwey said that if the club does sign Morris, it could lead to a change in formation from the team’s 4-4-2 look to a 4-3-3 setup that allows Morris, Clint Dempsey and Obafemi Martins on the field simultaneously.
“I think Jordan’s going to play a ton,” Lagerwey said. “I think there’s going to be an opportunity for him literally from the first week coming out of national team camp.”
Garber, meanwhile, said he was not concerned with the recent quotes from U.S. Under-23 coach and USMNT assistant Andi Herzog, who told a German newspaper that the USMNT coaching staff has a goal to “bring as many players as possible to Europe.”
Herzog later said he was misquoted, and Garber said Thursday he did not consider the involvement from Klinsmann or Herzog in Morris’ stint in Germany as any type of meddling or interference.
“A federation has a responsibility to ensure that players that are part of their program understand what their opportunities are,” Garber said. “And having spoken to [USSF President Sunil Gulati], and Sunil spoke to Jurgen and Andi, and Andi corrected what he said was a misquote in the article in Germany. None of the federation staff is encouraging players to sign overseas and not with Major League Soccer. I think Andi was very clear about that.
“We very much believe that our league provides players with a great opportunity and today more than ever before to begin their careers. And some people come back at the conclusion of their careers, to make a good living, be trained well, have fantastic facilities and, in the case of Seattle, play in front of 45000 fans, which is among the best in the world. Our goal is to do everything we can to have these players - as we've said many times before - see MLS as a league of choice, and we do everything we can to make that happen.”
