When Danny Leyva signed with the Seattle Sounders in 2019, he was the youngest player to ever join the MLS squad. Leyva, who was still just 15 at the time, was also just the second Academy player the Sounders had ever signed prior their graduating high school.
About two years later, Leyva is still the youngest-ever player to sign a Sounders first-team contract, but his signing proved to part of a trend that only seems to be speeding up. There are now four teenagers already signed to the Sounders’ 23-player roster and 10 of the 27 field players currently in preseason camp are 19 or younger (as an aside, just nine of the players in preseason camp played collegiately).