Werder Bremen have revealed that U.S. national team youngster Jordan Morris has turned down their offer of a contract.
The Bundesliga outfit released a statement on Tuesday saying that Morris, 21, “sees his future in America” following a training stint with Bremen over the German winter break where he impressed.
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Morris is a product of the Seattle Sounders academy in Major League Soccer and it has been long rumored that he will sign a Homegrown deal with his hometown club.
Below is more from Werder’s statement as the man who won the 2015 MAC Hermann Trophy for the best player in college soccer -- after leading Stanford University to its first-ever national title -- will head back to the U.S. and more than likely link up with the U.S. national team (he has one goal through seven appearances) for their January camp in California.
Bremen also confirmed that Morris will not train with the team today and it is expected he will head back to the U.S. soon. Let’s see what Jurgen Klinsmann, who obviously will have pulled some string to get Morris a look overseas in his native Germany, thinks about the young forward turning down this move.
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There’s no doubt having a young star getting minutes in one of Europe’s top leagues would have been great for his development, but if he heads to Seattle then he will become a key cog in the team right away rather than a bit-part at Bremen. See: Green, Julian and the way his career has stalled in Bayern Munich’s reserve squad.
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Morris, obviously, made a big impact during this “training stint” which is in inverted commas due to the fact that young MLS and U.S. national team stars often travel to Europe for “training stints” in the MLS offseason but it is actually more of an informal trial.
The fact that this “training stint” ended with a contract offer and Werder pushed hard to double their USMNT contingency in their ranks (fellow striker Aron Johannsson signed from AZ Alkmaar last year) proves that Morris is ready to play in the German top flight.
That will have Seattle’s head coach Sigi Schmid licking his lips if a deal can be tied up to send the U.S. national team’s brightest young talent back to his hometown club.