Morris leaves the Seattle Sounders on loan for the rest of the Championship season–and perhaps beyond.
After five years in MLS, Jordan Morris is heading abroad.
The Seattle Sounders and U.S. men's national team forward will be going on loan to Swansea City for the remainder of the second-tier English Championship season, with an option to make it a permanent move, the Swans announced Friday.
Morris was in U.S. January camp until Wednesday, when he was excused to complete his loan, which will mark his first foray into the European club scene. He worked out with Werder Bremen and had the opportunity to sign for the Bundesliga club in 2016 but opted to stick with his hometown Sounders. He's flourished in Seattle, reaching the MLS Cup final in four of his five professional seasons (and winning two of them). The only season Seattle did not reach the final in that time coincided with him missing the entire 2018 season with a torn ACL.
Morris, 26, has been capped 39 times by the USMNT, with 10 goals and eight assists (including a Concacaf Gold Cup-winning goal in 2017). For Seattle, Morris has 35 goals and 20 assists in 105 regular-season appearances, with another six goals and three assists in 16 playoff games.
He joins a Swansea team chasing promotion back to the Premier League. He might not be the only MLS and U.S. star heading to the club, with Swansea reportedly in talks with D.C. United's Paul Arriola over a similar arrangement. D.C. and Swansea share an owner in Jason Levien.
With the uncertainty over the start of the MLS season amid a contentious back-and-forth between the league and its players association, it's possible other players seek short-term moves abroad, to securing formal playing and training time while labor issues get ironed out.
Swansea City is currently second in the Championship, which would be good enough to secure automatic promotion. It trails first-place Norwich City–which just recalled U.S. forward Sebastian Soto from his loan to Telstar in the Dutch second division–by seven points, but has a game in hand. The four clubs trailing the Swans and occupying the promotion playoff places are all within four points, with the number of games played varying between them.
Swansea faces Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup's fourth round this Saturday before a vital league game against third-place Brentford, which trails Swansea by two points and has a game in hand, on Jan. 27. Morris won't be available to play vs. Nottingham Forest.