Insider Notes: Jordan Morris's MLS contract; Plans for Christian Pulisic
On the day the Bundesliga gets back into action, a couple of U.S. insider notes with a German taste:
The Seattle Sounders beat out Werder Bremen for the signature of U.S. forward Jordan Morris this week, and I’ve learned the financial details of the choice Morris made. His MLS homegrown contract offer is a guaranteed three-year, $675,000 deal paying him an average of $225,000 per year.
Werder Bremen offered a contract that would have paid Morris a bit more guaranteed money this season than Seattle’s offer, but if Werder Bremen had been relegated—and it’s currently third from bottom in the Bundesliga—Morris would have earned less guaranteed money than the Seattle contract next season.
Also, I’m told the Werder Bremen contract offer came before Morris went to train with the team in Europe, not afterward as the club had said publicly.
As for a U.S. rising star who is playing in Germany, at 17, U.S. midfielder Christian Pulisic is four years younger than Morris, but he is already making waves at Borussia Dortmund.
Pulisic, a Pennsylvania native, is training every day with Dortmund’s first team, and he scored in a friendly over the winter break. Pulisic could soon make his senior debut with Dortmund, and one of my contacts tells me he expects Pulisic will get four to five appearances for the Dortmund first team this season.
Pulisic did play for the U.S. at the recent Under-17 World Cup, but he also has a Croatian passport, and I’m told he has received overtures from Croatia. For now, though, Pulisic wants to play for the United States.
Here’s something crazy: He won’t turn 18 until September.
