Soccer Study: Analyzing Brad Smith’s Sounders contract and MLS loans

Editor’s note: This story is one in an occasional series by Seattle Times reporter Jayda Evans pulling the curtain back for a look at what she’s learning in her first year on the Sounders beat. By chronicling her access, exploration and explanation, we hope you may learn something in the process, too.

Seattle’s first dip into soccer’s loan game has been hardest on Thor.

The French bulldog was left home in Bournemouth, England, a coastal resort town an hour south of London, when defender Brad Smith signed in August 2018 to play for the Sounders.

“It’s a shame,” said Smith, who left his native Australia for England at 14. “His breed wouldn’t allow him to fly into Seattle. He could only fly into…