TUKWILA — Perhaps Jordy Delem has a knack for breaking up plays on the soccer field because his parents were talented scorers.
“They tell me he was one of the best, so I believe them,” Delem said of his father, Jose Bourgeoes, who played for the national team of Martinique, a French island territory in the eastern Caribbean Sea nestled between Dominica and Saint Lucia with a population smaller than the metro Seattle area.
Delem’s parents played for local club teams, encouraging him and his older sister to play, the elder sibling uninterested in the sport. But somewhere in teaching Delem the spacing required to score, he found more interest in stopping their goals and breaking up passes — so much that he worked his way to the Sounders starting lineup as a defensive midfielder.