On Jan. 5, Morris confirms what most have suspected for months: he will forego his final season of NCAA availability and turn professional. Three days later, Morris is named the winner of the Hermann Trophy, soccer’s Heisman.
He boards a plane bound for Bremen, Germany, where he’ll work out with the Bundesliga club based there at the behest of then-U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann. The Sounders, who own Morris’ MLS rights and twice previously tried to get him to leave school early, await his decision on pins and needles.
Morris stops reading his social-media mentions, exchanges emails with USMNT legend Landon Donovan, gets homesick for his parents’ house in Mercer Island.