TUKWILA, Wash. — Fredy Montero has become the third designated player of the Seattle Sounders
FC after signing an extension with the team. The Sounders announced the deal on Wednesday. He joins
Alvaro Fernandez and Blaise Nkufo as Seattle's designated players. Montero, 23, has been the
Sounders' leading scorer each of their first two seasons.
The Seattle Sounders bought out the rights to Colombian striker Fredy Montero on Wednesday, and
secured his services for the long term by making him the club's third Designated Player.
Montero joins Blaise NKufo and Alvaro Fernandez as Seattle DP players, and is the second MLS
player in two days to have their contracts graduated to DP status (Real Salt Lake's Alvaro Saborio
being the other).
Overlooked in the American World Cup hype was the move by Seattle to sign their young striker
Freddy Montero to an extension which also makes him a designated player. Montero, 23, becomes
Seattle's third DP, joining Blaise Nkufo and Alvaro Fernandez. More importantly, the signing
prevents the young talent and 2009 Rookie of the Year from moving to Europe for more money and
allows Seattle to keep their nucleus of talent in tact.
The move that has been rumored for more than a week was made official today as the Sounders
announced the signing of Swedish midfielder Erik Friberg. He has spent the last four years with
Swedish Allsvenskan side BK Hacken, spending time on the left side and in the middle.
"Erik is a player who who brings an honest work rate and flair to our midfield," said Sounders
coach Sigi Schmid said in a team release.
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The biggest news of the announcement of MLS Home Openers is that The First Kick game will be on
Tuesday.
Back when Kasey Keller was re-signed, I promised to share some of my interview with Sounders
Technical Director Chris Henderson. We mainly talked about the recent signing of Swedish midfielder
Erik Friberg.
Most of our conversation was about how he saw Friberg fitting into a team that already seems
reasonably well set.
