Joao Paulo elects to stay a Sounder!

Me and many other fans thought Joao Paulo's amazing time at the club was over. So much so that I made a article saying he was out the door... whoops. But now that he's staying there's one question on everyone's mind. What now?

The most interesting thing to me is the timing of the announcement. As I went over yesterday with our 1st round pick we picked Ryan Baer the West Virginia University CDM with the 28th pick. Now with the Huntersville, NC man sharing the same position and I'm sure the Sounders don't wanna waste a 1st round pick. I'm sure Joao Paulo will be saddled with some mentorship responsibilities. might even be 1 of the reasons he came back. If not I'm sure the multiple time All-Academic will be playing close attention to the Brazilian. As for how that'll affect the Sounders on the field. With Joao Paulo going through 4 injuries in the past 4 seasons and being the ripe age of 33 I'm sure he isn't going to play as much as he did in his prime. So I'm sure Baer was drafted not only as a rotation piece or super sub for this season but as his soon to be successor. If everything goes to plan of course.

It was only said it was through the 2025 season so it'll likely be his last so I'm sure they'll be hoping Baer develops quick or even better is already ready. Afterwards as for Joao Paulo is likely retirement if not maybe he'll return to his home club SC Internacional and be a rotation piece for them if he wants to keep playing but the Sounders wanna move on. And to be honest I'm surprised they didn't since they seemed keen at the start of the window to move on from a lot of the older talents that helped us achieve our peak success from 2016-2020.

Either way I'm happy we're preparing for the future and that we get 1 more year with the great Joao Paulo and thanks a bunch for reading!