Free agent since October
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Major League Soccer side Seattle Sounders have added English winger Ryan Kent for the rest of the 2025 season with a club option for 2026. The 28-year-old joined Seattle after his contract with Turkish giants Fenerbahçe was terminated in October 2024.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Ryan Kent to Seattle and add him to our existing group this season,” Sounders FC general manager Craig Waibel said. “Ryan is a dynamic winger with top-level experience who brings pace, creativity, and a dangerous attacking threat. His versatility and work ethic make him a great fit for our system, and we believe he can make an immediate impact and allow us to continue competing at the highest level.”
Added Sounders head coach Schmetzer: “Ryan is a very good player with an impressive pedigree, and we’re excited to bring him into our team. He’s got real quality on the ball, is effective at taking players on and stretches opposing backlines, which should give us another dimension in the final third. We’re confident Ryan will integrate quickly and give us a big lift as we continue a long, grueling 2025 campaign.”
Ryan Kent to Seattle Sounders – What went wrong for him at Fenerbahçe?
There has never been any doubt that Kent is a talented player. The winger emerged from the Liverpool academy in 2017 but then struggled on a brief loan to Bundesliga side Freiburg. After struggling for playing time at Liverpool, Kent moved on to Scottish giants Rangers, where he carved out a solid career, scoring 33 goals and 56 assists in 218 games across all competitions.
Then, ahead of the 2023/24 season, Kent joined Fenerbahçe, and his career fell off a cliff. Playing in just 19 games across all competitions, Kent managed one goal and two assists. “Kent was signed before Fenerbahçe had a coach appointed,” Transfermarkt Area Manager Türkiye Lara Karacan said. “Once İsmail Kartal took over, it quickly turned out that Kent didn’t fit his tactics. The same was true under Jose Mourinho. The foreign limitation rule in Türkiye meant that Fener needed to cut a player from its squad, and with Kent struggling, he was let go.” Now, in Seattle, Kent is looking to restart his career.
