Player development is both art and science, simultaneously brimming with intangibles and ruled by cold, hard numbers – like how quickly a youngster matures and masters the fundamentals, when and how they are challenged with higher-level competition, and the age when they become a first-team regular.
In light of all that, it’s difficult to adequately describe just how comprehensively Seattle Sounders FC homegrown Obed Vargas defied the odds, and conventional youth soccer wisdom, to rise from distant, snowbound Alaska to his current status as an MLS All-Star, Mexico international, one of the world’s top central midfield prospects in his birth year and now, No. 1 on MLSsoccer.com’s 22 Under 22 list.
There’s a thriving soccer scene in Vargas’ hometown of Anchorage, Alaska. Yet the region’s small population (its metropolitan area is about a tenth the size of Seattle’s), geographical isolation and cold climate that limits the outdoor season to four months or so impose difficult limitations compared to the lower 48 states.
“Growing up playing soccer in Alaska is definitely unique,” Vargas explained on Breakaway. “It's not the same as everywhere else. Not as many teams. Not as [much] competition. There are maybe four or five teams in the whole state.
“So that kind of always kept me grounded, kept me humble because I knew I was the best player here in Alaska. But I didn't know how far that was going to get me.”
Remarkable rise
What made the difference for the now-20-year-old? It starts with his sheer, precocious talent, a powerful family legacy and the Sounders Academy's scouting acumen.
Seattle spotted Vargas early and offered him the chance to join their homestay program at age 14, prompting him to leave his parents and three siblings and move in with a host family – that of his fellow homegrown Cody Baker – nearly 2,000 miles from home.
There was pain in that decision, but also enormous pride, because Vargas’ father, Obed Sr., had himself been a youth prospect in his homeland, spending time in the academy of Monarcas Morelia, a revered Mexican club, and was an influential figure in his sons’ early love of futbol and the acumen that blossomed from it. (Obed’s younger brother Abad would follow in his footsteps; now 17, he too is working his way through Seattle’s developmental pathway.)
Fútbol, in fact, is the main reason the Vargas family wound up in Alaska in the first place, as Obed Sr. revealed to MLSsoccer.com contributor Jon Arnold in a moving profile on Backheeled.com. When Morelia cut him loose from their system at age 19, the pain was such that Obed Sr. roamed as far away from the place as he could, initially landing at a fish-processing job in the Aleutian Islands alongside an aunt.
“I wanted to get away, as far as possible from Mexico because I couldn’t achieve my dream of playing professional soccer,” he told Backheeled.
Family inspiration
Yet his love of the game kept burning in the frozen north. The Vargas household was rich in Mexican footballing culture and, despite the remote setting, the kids were introduced to a ball at an early age and taught Monarcas lore as if they were still back in Michoacán.
“I was born with it,” Obed explained. “Everything's kind of soccer-related in the house. And everything kind of had a connection to Mexico soccer.”
Obed Sr. coached them both formally and informally, helping them make the most of their abilities in spite of Anchorage’s aforementioned constraints.
“I always told them,” the elder Vargas recalled to Backheeled, “I hope you can achieve what I couldn’t.”
A star is born
As challenging as it was to be separated from his loved ones, immersion in a professional-style routine in Seattle quickly honed Obed Jr.’s skills, and he soon moved on to Tacoma Defiance, the Sounders’ second team, which now competes in MLS NEXT Pro.
Quicker than anyone could have imagined, in fact. With his clean technique, uncanny composure and box-to-box toolkit, he so impressed the Rave Green that head coach Brian Schmetzer gave Vargas his MLS debut in 2021 at the tender age of 15 years and 351 days, becoming the third-youngest player in league history.
That in itself was striking; what was even more so was that he was one of five teenagers in the Seattle XI as injuries and international call-ups left the side shorthanded for a visit to Austin FC. And the kids more than held their own, laying the groundwork for veteran striker (and former Morelia star) Raúl Ruidíaz to come off the bench and deliver an unlikely 1-0 road win via a long-range thunderbolt.
It would prove an auspicious start for the Sounders’ Obed era.
The following season, Vargas rocketed into the first-team rotation, memorably making seven appearances in Seattle’s remarkable run to the Concacaf Champions Cup trophy, including a superb outing off the bench in the 3-0 second-leg win over Pumas UNAM that clinched the title. The Rave Green are still the only MLS side to achieve that honor in the CCC’s modern era, and their teenage center mid’s maturity and versatility were there for all the world to see – vividly visible via both big data and the eye test.
That’s only multiplied as Vargas blossomed into a dependable daily starter for one of MLS’s elite clubs in the three years since, logging more than 9,500 minutes across all competitions. This season, he turned heads against world-class opposition in the FIFA Club World Cup and earned an MLS All-Star nod before anchoring Seattle’s run to a Leagues Cup championship, highlighted by a lockdown performance against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF during a 3-0 victory in the tournament final.
“At this point, what I’d say is I don’t know if there’s a club in the world that doesn’t know who he is,” Sounders general manager and chief soccer officer Craig Waibel said this past spring.
“I mean, anyone who’s got analytics, he’s triggered and kind of set off the red alarms.”
El Tri hopes
Along the way, Vargas has earned a place in the plans of El Tri, whose director of youth national teams, Andres Lillini, was coaching Pumas in that ConcaChampions final. Though he rose through the United States’ youth system, the pull of his family’s heritage was strong, prompting Vargas to make a one-time eligibility switch to Mexico a year ago after a concerted recruitment pitch from Lillini & Co.
Vargas’ tools are “something we need at a World Cup,” Lillini told Backheeled. “What he also has that works in his favor is how many matches he has in the first division. Any player with that first-division experience is different from the rest because of the things he learns, things he’s being told and that competition you get that is impossible to find at the academy level.
“While he hasn’t maybe had that formation in a culture of growing up in a formal academy, the Sounders have known how to bring him along, and they’ve made him much better than he was.”
While he faces stiff competition in El Tri’s formidable player pool, a role at the 2026 FIFA World Cup is within Vargas’ reach. So is a big-ticket transfer to a top European league, an ambition he’s made clear despite extensive interest from LIGA MX. Such a move might materialize as soon as this winter, though he will focus on spearheading a Sounders MLS Cup run in the coming months.
As amazing as his journey has been, Vargas’ next chapters could be his most incredible.
