Seattle Sounders still linked with African Lyon

MLS club Seattle Sounders are still being heavily linked with Tanzanian club African Lyon.

Recent reports had suggested that the Sounders owners had purchased the club and were set to invest millions of dollars into it but as of yet, nothing like that has occurred.

Sounders general manager Adrian Hanauer explained to seattlepi that the club were still looking into the possibility of creating a relationship with the Dar es Salaam outfit and provided reasons why Seattle would get involved in the first place.

“Four or five years ago I took the USL team to Dar es Salaam as a thank you for the team following a championship," Hanauer said. "(We) had a great experience, met a lot of people and had always continued to communicate and have some level of interest and intrigue in East Africa soccer.

"So I've been curious about East Africa. Less players come out of East Africa, but there is less competition there. So, I continued to keep conversations alive, and there is this team – African Lyon – who a contact of ours currently owns and controls, and we've talked about partnering in some way."

Hanauer added that the purchase of the club could assist the Sounders from a developmental viewpoint going forward.

“That's what we're looking into: Is there a pipeline potentially of good young East African players," Hanauer added. "Certainly there are many African players playing in top leagues around the world. My hunch is there will be East African players, whether from Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Rwanda, there will be players that develop. It's a small investment to potentially create that pipeline. But just like with our academy system (fans) shouldn't expect immediate or highly impactful returns in the short term.”