Seattle’s DeAndre Yedlin signs with Tottenham, will remain with Sounders this season
DeAndre Yedlin, Seattle native and Sounders academy product, is leaving the Seattle Sounders.
But not before he helps the club make one last push at its first MLS Cup – and maybe even helps out on another.
The Sounders have agreed to sell Yedlin to Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League, with Yedlin staying in Seattle through at least the rest of the 2014 MLS season, the club announced Wednesday.
“Our goal is always to position ourselves to challenge for and win championships. But in our league, it’s a delicate balance,” Sounders owner and general manager Adrian Hanauer said in a media conference call.
“This transaction provides, first, a great opportunity to win a championship in 2014. Second, it provides us with allocation money that is paramount to maintaining a competitive squad going forward.”
ESPN’s Taylor Twellman is reporting that the transfer is worth $4 million. Yedlin has signed a four-year deal with Tottenham and will join the club prior to the 2015 EPL season, Spurs said on their website.
What happens until then is still up in the air.
Yedlin is not returning to the Sounders on loan, but will instead “become a Tottenham player at some other point,” Hanauer said, “it could be January or June.”
Yedlin’s agent, Chris Megaloudis, confirmed in an email that he and Yedlin will be in discussions with the club as this MLS season winds down.
Although the details are still being ironed out, “It’s a done deal,” Hanauer said.
It’s easy to forget that just two summers ago Yedlin was preparing for his sophomore season at the University of Akron. The following January, he signed with the Sounders as the club’s first homegrown player, and he made his MLS debut a few months later.
“When we signed DeAndre as a Homegrown, (sporting director Chris Henderson) said, basically, we got a player that would have been one of the top three picks in the MLS draft,” Hanauer said.
“I raised an eyebrow at him.”
It wouldn’t be the last time Yedlin inspired that reaction.
Few tabbed him to get called into the pre-World Cup camp with the United States national team, let alone to make the final squad. Yedlin came on as a substitute in three of the four U.S. matches, holding his own.
“I’m very excited to come to the Premier League,” Yedlin said in a video on the Spurs website, “and challenge myself against some of the best players in the world.”