The winding path that brought Sounders forward Sam Adeniran back to Texas

Seattle was far from Sam Adeniran’s mind last September, when a familiar face approached him while speaking an unfamiliar language. McKinze Gaines didn’t recognize who he’d just played against, but Adeniran hadn’t forgotten Gaines from their duels as teenagers.

“I speak English, I’m from Houston,” Adeniran remembers telling the fellow Texan.

Gaines was shocked. How could he not know another American playing in the same league as him?

The season opener of the Regionalliga Nord between Gaines’ Hannover 96 II and Adeniran’s Atlas Delmenhorst turned out to be the first step on Adeniran’s route back home.

On Thursday, the 22-year-old Adeniran will suit up for the Seattle Sounders against Austin FC at Q2 Stadium. Most of his friends and family in attendance will be watching him for the first time since he turned professional in 2017, in Portugal.

“It’s amazing,” Adeniran told The Striker Texas on Wednesday via phone as he prepared to play just his second MLS match after he was signed to a short-term deal from the Sounders’ USL Championship affiliate Tacoma Defiance. “I didn’t starting training (with the Sounders) until three weeks ago. They called me up at the best time.”

Adeniran is a Texan by birth, raised by Nigerian parents in the Houston suburbs. He attended Cypress Christian School, and played at his father’s Ade Youth Soccer Academy before joining several area youth clubs including the Express — now RISE Soccer Club.

Always on the taller side — Adeniran is listed at 6-foot-5 — he said he was noticed by European scouts, including one from Liverpool, at Dallas Cup which opened a pathway to Europe.

At 18, he turned pro with Belenenses in Portugal, then eventually caught on with CD Guadalajara, a Spanish third-division team where he said he scored seven goals in 14 matches. Stops at several other Spanish clubs eventually led him to Germany, and that fateful day when he matched up against a former youth rival in Gaines.

Adeniran hadn’t forgotten those matches between the Express and Lonestar SC, but apparently Gaines had. They cleared up the confusion pretty quickly, and then Jacob Thomas, who represents Gaines, introduced himself with a line that Adeniran has come to hear often.

“We have no idea who you are,” Thomas said.

His coaches in Tacoma and Seattle have said the same thing.

In an age where you can discover thousands of soccer players at the touch of a finger, and where Americans are being sold to overseas clubs for millions of dollars, the idea of a 6-5 forward from Houston playing anonymously in the German fourth division seems absurd.

Adeniran said it’s not as uncommon as one might think. Players chase their European dream at 18, and even those who don’t rise quickly are able to carve out a living as they wait to be discovered.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing, but it was frustrating because there are a lot of Americans doing well and nobody knows who we are,” Adeniran said.

He’d probably still be in Europe if not for the COVID-19 pandemic cutting Atlas’ 2020-21 season short. He returned to Houston last November, then asked to be released from his contract so he could pursue opportunities closer to home. The Sounders spotted him at a combine in San Diego.

"He's a big kid. He's good with both feet," Thomas said. "He's fast. You can put him on the wing. I like him as a number nine, to be honest, because he can hold up the ball really well. He can go at people one-on-one. Usually it's one or the other, but he can actually hold up the ball good and he can go at you. I think he has big potential."

Like Thomas, Seattle's scouts were astonished to find a 22-year-old pro who they had never heard of.

In nine appearances this year for the Defiance, Adeniran leads the team with 14 shots and scored a late equalizer on June 23 in a 1-1 draw against Real Monarchs. He was called up last week as the Sounders needed to use the Extreme Hardship rule with fewer than 16 field players available.

Adeniran appeared as a late sub in the 1-0 loss to Minnesota United.

On Thursday, he’ll be reunited with the man who reconnected him to soccer in the United States. Gaines is currently on trial with Austin FC, and while he won’t be on the pitch for Verde, it’s possible that he’ll soon make his MLS debut. The Round Rock native played last week during a friendly match against Tigres.

Both players still see a possible future in Europe, once COVID restrictions subside. But who knows? Maybe one day they’ll be able to trade jerseys representing their Texas hometowns that they thought they’d left behind.