SOUNDERS RETURN TO SPAIN!

Recently the Sounders reveled where they'll be doing their pre-season and it'll be in a familiar spot. As it'll be in the same place we did our pre-season last year. That being Spain, Marbella, Spain. And they'll be only 1 of the 49 teams who will be joining us in Spain. The other teams will be, Toronto FC, ironically enough the team were stealing their best players from FC Dallas, as for the other MLS teams, we'll have the likes of the Philadelphia Union as well. Most notably however is all the European elites clubs who'll be joining us like Chelsea FC. then Feyenoord, Zenit, FC Copenhagen, Young Boys, Malmo Zlatan's boyhood club, Red Bull Salzburg, FC Koln and others from European such as SC Paderborn, and other clubs mostly from Germany and Scandinavia.

It'll be interesting to see if the Sounders use this as a opportunity to scout out talent from the foreign clubs even if due to recent moves we won't be able to sign many. Still it would be recommended that we sign or scout somebody while we're there. And considering the start date of February, which it was the past 2 seasons we went there. Which means we can assume many of the German teams plus Feyenoord and Chelsea FC will bring most likely youth teams or reserve squads which would be the perfect opportunity to scout out some cheap talent who want more playing time and more eyes on em. And of course continuing with our plan of recruiting within the MLS it's a great opportunity to further see which FC Dallas players we can steal. While also seeing Toronto FC and Philadelphia Union up close and personal again.

One talent I'd be very excited to see up close is from Malmo FF, is centerback Nils Zätterström. Potentially the next Svensson at only 19 years old he already had 14 appearances in 2024 playing over 960 minutes and even got 2 goals, very impressive for a young defender. And that was only in the league he also had 5 apperances in CL qualifying and got a goal and assist showing he can do a lot more than defend, in other words a modern defender. Though his tackling, jumping and strength also show great promise! Thanks a bunch for reading!