The Seattle Sounders have wasted little time in replacing the injured Paul Arriola on their roster. Ryan Kent was officially added to the roster today, signing a one-year guaranteed contract with an option year in 2026. Although further details of Kent’s contract were not made immediately available, it is believed that he will take up roughly the same amount of salary-cap space as the Sounders freed up when they moved Arriola to the season-ending injury list after he tore his ACL.
“Ryan is a dynamic winger with top-level experience who brings pace, creativity and a dangerous attacking threat,” Sounders GM Craig Waibel said in a team release. “His versatility and work ethic make him a great fit for our system, and we believe he can make an immediate impact and allow us to continue competing at the highest level.”
As quickly as the Sounders moved to complete Kent’s signing, it will likely be at least several weeks until he is able to make his debut. Not only will Kent need to finalize his work permit and other legal paperwork, but the reality is that he's not played a match since last July and hasn’t even been under contract since he and Fenerbahçe "mutually parted ways” in October. If he can be fully fit within in the next couple of months, that would seemingly be considered a success.
“Ryan is a very good player with an impressive pedigree, and we’re excited to bring him into our team,” Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer said. “He’s got real quality on the ball, is effective at taking players on and stretches opposing backlines, which should give us another dimension in the final third. We’re confident Ryan will integrate quickly and give us a big lift as we continue a long, grueling 2025 campaign.”
Although the 28-year-old winger is almost two years removed from his last productive season, he does bring an impressive resume. Since turning professional more than a decade ago after coming through the Liverpool Academy, he’s made more than 300 professional appearances, which includes more than 60 matches in European competitions. Most of his best seasons were spent in the Scottish Premiership with Rangers, but he’s also played for top flight teams in England (Liverpool), Turkey (Fenerbahçe) and Germany (SC Freiburg) in addition to English lower-level teams in the Championship (Barnsley and Bristol City) and League One (Coventry).
Along the way, he’s shown himself an aggressive dribbler, a solid goal-scorer and a creative playmaker. Fives times he’s finished a season with at least 10 goal-contributions, including a 12-goal, 12-assist season for Rangers in 2020-21 and a three-goal, 17-assist season in 2021-22.
During his last season in Turkey, Kent had a goal and two assists while playing about 750 minutes. The following season Jose Mourinho took over as coach. Kent made one start during Champions League qualifying and then never played again. He reportedly was close to joining Italian club Lazio, but the deal fell apart. Since ending his relationship with Fenerbahçe, he’s been linked with potential moves back to Rangers, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
