As you may or may not know, today has been dubbed “A Day Without Immigrants” in many U.S. cities. I genuinely have no idea how widely it is being practiced in our region, but as someone who feels strongly that all of our lives are greatly enhanced by immigrants, I felt compelled to offer some form of solidarity. This will be the only post on Sounder at Heart today.
While it’s an exceptionally small and relatively inconsequential aspect of our lives, I think it’s worth a moment to discuss and appreciate how immigrants simply make things better for MLS and the Seattle Sounders.
Let’s look at MLS broadly. It’s beyond question that MLS would be in a much different — and worse — place if not for the willingness to import talent and rely on immigrant populations. When MLS last released this data in June, there were 79 countries represented in the league. That’s a 44% increase from 2014.
That’s also twice as many countries that are represented in any other major North American professional sports league. MLS is actually more internationally diverse than any of Europe’s top leagues, where the English Premier League tops the list with 69 countries represented.
Notably, this is not done at the expense of American-born players. Last year, there were 375 domestic players on MLS rosters — 332 from the United States and another 44 from Canada — which represents 48.5% of the player pool. I don’t have the domestic/international breakdown from 2014, but considering there were only about 570 total MLS players that year, we can safely assume this is a significant total increase despite more foreign-born players entering the league. A rising tide raises all boats, as the saying goes.
The Sounders are a great example of this duality, too. Yes, they play more domestic talent than any other MLS team — more than 27,000 minutes last year — but even among those players, there’s a good deal of diversity that would be impossible without immigrants.
As the league has matured Sounders continuing to lean into American players has become a relatively rare approach in MLS. Topped the league last year with 64% of minutes played by Americans (counting Obed and ARoldan as Americans).
— Josh (@joshonthesound.bsky.social) January 30, 2025 at 10:29 PM
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The Sounders currently have just seven players who are not U.S. citizens, but they have 11 others who are eligible to represent another country. This is a team full of hyphenated-Americans. These are players like Obed Vargas, Cristian Roldan, Alex Roldan, Stefan Frei, Jesús Ferreira, Paul Arriola, Jon Bell and Andrew Thomas, all of whom help create a locker room that is both diverse and unified.
This is the story of Seattle as well, a city that has thrived on immigration from the very start. What makes this city so vibrant is the various cultures that have come together, whether they be native tribes, Scandinavians, Asians, Central Americans, East Africans or from anywhere else. Generations have come here to seek better lives. By pulling up the ladder, we do little to improve our lives now and harm ourselves by not letting others follow our footsteps.
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