A young, quick, and ferocious talent is set to depart the Sounders in a shock move by the club. The Sounders have traded midfielder and fan favorite Georgi Minoungou to the Colorado Rapids, reports Niko Moreno of Pulso Sports. The fee for the deal will be about $2m in General Allocation Money (GAM), Tom Bogert of The Athletic added to the report.
Georgi signed for the Sounders back in August 2024, joining the first team straight from the Tacoma Defiance on long term deal through until 2028 and an option until 2029. The club will have an unoccupied international spot after the move is completed, but one of best dribblers in MLS will no longer be an active Sounder.
The 23-year-old hasn’t been getting as many minutes as he would like under Brian Schmetzer, not making a full 90 minutes so far in 2026. The move to Colorado will certainly enable Georgi to get more of those minutes, but the Sounders will miss out on witnessing such a talent grow to his full potential in Rave Green.
Photo: Connor Pickett / Sounders FC Communications
The Sounders have sold several young talents over the offseason, which include Danny Leyva, Reed Baker-Whiting, Obed Vargas, and now Georgi, but the club will have a good amount of money to spend. The question is now posed to General Manager Craig Waibel: what will he do with the funds? Either the General Allocation Money (GAM) and other funds (e.g., out-of-pocket) will be used to go big and acquire a high profile player, or go little-by-little and squad build in the long term, or the money will go unused for a transfer.
The GAM budget for Seattle will have a lot of purchasing power, with the Obed transfer to Atletico Madrid at a minimum of $3 million and a portion of that converted to GAM, as well as after the Georgi transfer to Colorado becomes official with the reported $2 million in GAM. The Georgi deal will break the club record with GAM-based transfer fees, topping the Josh Atencio transfer to Colorado in early 2025 at $1.6 million.
Cover Photo: Ryan Hampton / House of Sounders
