The Seattle Sounders announced on Thursday that the club was signing midfielders Jordy Delem and Zach Mathers to first team contracts, after both players impressed during the team’s 2017 preseason. Mathers arrived in 2016 via the 2nd round of the SuperDraft, while Delem was scouted from Martinique by the Sounders.
Head coach Brian Schmetzer said he was “happy to have both of them” in the squad, but that both players are “a work in progress. We’ll get after them, we’ll push them and make sure that they uphold their end of the deal.” Both players spent most of last season with Sounders 2, and Mathers was called up to the first team on short-term loans for every US Open Cup match in 2016.