The long awaited trade between FC Dallas and the Seattle Sounders is done. The two sides have announced the blockbuster trade that sends Designated Player Jesus Ferreira to Seattle in exchange for U22 midfielder Leo Chu, an international roster slot and up to $2.3 million in General Allocation Money (GAM).

Ferreira has signed a new contract with the Sounders that will not make him a Designated Player in 2025.

Here are some key points on the deal:

  • The GAM will be paid out over the course of three seasons, with $1 million in 2025 General Allocation Money (GAM), $500k in 2026 GAM and up to $800k GAM if certain performance metrics are met.
  • As part of the deal, Ferreira will sign a new contract with the Sounders that will include a significant pay cut to get him below the mandatory DP threshold (about $1.75 million). Ferreira was entering the final guaranteed year of a contract he signed in 2022 that made him a Young Designated Player.
  • FC Dallas will maintain a larger percentage on any future Ferreira transfer.
  • The Sounders will retain some sell-on percentage on Chú, who is in the final year of his contract.

Ferreira leaves FC Dallas with 53 goals and 34 assists in his MLS career. He also became the youngest player in MLS history to reach 50 career goals. On the international stage, he has 15 career goals in 23 appearances for the USMNT, which includes a start in the 2022 World Cup.

Last winter, MLS turned down an offer for Ferreira to leave Dallas to join Spartak Moscow. The 2024 season for Ferreira was a disappointment, possibly because of that failed transfer bid. He spent a decent part of the first half of the year on the injured list. When he was healthy, he scored five goals and six assists while playing less than 1,400 minutes.

Ferreira joined the FC Dallas Academy at age 8, following his father, David Ferreira, who signed with the club in February 2009. He played for the U16 FC Dallas Academy team that won the 2015-16 U.S. Soccer Development Academy Championship, finishing with a 23-2-0 record during the regular season.

Chu is another player looking to potentially reboot his career in MLS. The Brazilian played mostly on the left wing for the Sounders in his four-ish seasons in Washington. He appeared in 79 regular reason games for the Sounders, with 46 of those as a starter. During that time he had seven goals and 14 assists, most of which game in the 2023 season.

The Brazilian winger was part of the Sounders squad that won its first Concacaf Champions League title after defeating Club Universidad Nacional on May 4, 2022. Chú signed with the Sounders via transfer from Grêmio on Aug. 5, 2021. Prior to joining Seattle, Chú made 38 professional appearances for Grêmio and on loan at Série A side Ceará Sporting Club between 2019 and 2021, recording five goals across all competitions.

We will take a deeper dive on this deal in the coming days, even though we've had a lot of time to process it over the last few weeks, it is still a lot to think through for FC Dallas.