'There Is No Way I'm Not Scoring Goals:' Dejan Joveljić Confident For Sounders Tenure
RENTON, Wash. — Longtime Seattle Sounders head coach Brian Schmetzer has always maintained his vision of the ideal Sounder.
"Gritty" is a common word of choice for the on-pitch product, but there's another layer. Schmetzer has gone after players who don't draw attention to themselves, and certainly don't need to be recognized when they, say, go out to dinner with their families.
From all appearances, Seattle's newest starting striker fits the bill.
27-year-old Dejan Joveljić, Sporting Kansas City's leading scorer for the last two years and 2024 MLS Cup champion with the LA Galaxy, was formally introduced by the team on Tuesday at its facility in Renton. The moment came three days after Fabrizio Romano first reported the team was buying Joveljić for $6 million, putting an end to a five-year drought of summer transfer-window moves.
Joveljić, known by the nickname "Deki," fits Schmetzer's bill by keeping life "simple." He holds a FIDE ranking of over 2200 in chess and plays every day. He's also scored 60 MLS goals in five and a half seasons.
"Simple life, family, chess, thinking about soccer and waiting (for the) weekend for the games," Joveljić said.
When he starts against the Chicago Fire this Saturday, according to Schmetzer on Tuesday, fans will see Joveljić's game is anything but simple. The Serbian national formerly of the Serbian SuperLiga's Red Star and Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt has scored 60 MLS goals in five-and-a-half seasons.
"I'm here to bring goals, and help win the game," Joveljić said. "I can score with left, right, head, doesn't matter. If Seattle is playing the way they played the last couple of years, I'm going to score a lot of goals," Joveljić said.
As far as coming to the only club to win the U.S. Open Cup, the MLS Cup, Leagues Cup and the Concacaf Champions Cup, Joveljić knew what he was getting with the Sounders.
"When you say Seattle, you mean winning," Joveljić said. "When everyone is healthy, this team is scary… we are finally in the same colors."
Sounders to Sign Kansas City Star Striker Dejan Joveljić in $6 Million Deal
The Seattle Sounders were sick of answering for their lack of midseason signings, and they put the criticism to rest on Saturday evening.
GM Craig Waibel and company reportedly agreed to sign Sporting Kansas City star striker Dejan Joveljić for $6 million, according to Fabrizio Romano and later confirmed by other sources. The 27-year-old Serbian was in his second season at KC after four successful years with the LA Galaxy, culminating in a 2024 MLS Cup win.
The move signals Seattle’s first summer signing since 2021, with the transfer window set to close on Sept. 2. In the midst of a record MLS eight-game losing streak, head coach Brian Schmetzer had repeatedly hinted at the Sounders having a move in the works.
That purported move apparently came to fruition on Saturday with the team on the road in Cincinnati, picking up a draw for its first points in eight fixtures. Seattle is 7-9-4 and in 11th place in the Western Conference — two points behind ninth-place Portland.
As for Joveljić, he’s scored 60 goals in five and a half MLS campaigns and brings instant offense to the second-least productive offense in the league. Seattle’s striker pairing of Danny Musovski and Osaze De Rosario has combined for just three MLS goals in 21 games while designated player Jordan Morris has missed large chunks of the season injured as his year-to-year production craters from all-time-leading-scorer territory.
Schmetzer has been openly challenging one of the strikers to make the starting job their own, to no avail on an offense that’s struggling overall.
To make way for the new DP, who's making a listed wage of $3 million according to Capology, Niko Moreno of Sounder at Heart reported the team extended DP Albert Rusnák by two-and-a-half years to move him out of a DP spot. If that report holds, Seattle’s three DP spots will be occupied by Joveljić, Morris (set to return in the next month) and injured winger Pedro de la Vega (out for the season, quad).
Rusnák’s deal, which carried a club option next season, has him carrying a cap hit of nearly $2.7 million this season, per Spotrac.com.
The deal also puts to use the funds Seattle has generated by its many outbound transfers of young players. Midfield Obed Vargas fetched $3 million from Atletico Madrid before the season while Georgi Minoungou (Colorado Rapids) and Danny Leyva (Nexaca) also pulled in $3 combined.
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