Ex-Sounders left back Jones hinting at coming to Miami

Did former Seattle Sounders defender Joevin Jones jump the gun by hinting at a potential signing with Inter Miami CF? It appears so.

According to screenshots by multiple reporters, Jones updated his bio on Instagram and put “Inter Miami CF” with the American flag next to the club’s name Tuesday afternoon.

And then another change came, with Jones taking Inter Miami’s name out of his bio and seemingly changing it back to what it was before, listing that he’s on the Trinidad and Tobago men’s national soccer team, a two-time MLS Cup champion and a father.

While Inter Miami didn’t confirm Jones’ signing with the team when reached via club spokespeople, the two sides have been previously linked to one another as the team is in search for a left back.

Chris Henderson, Inter Miami’s sporting director and chief soccer officer, confirmed that the team had been in talks for West Bromwich Albion left back Kieran Gibbs, but Gibbs’ contract with West Brom is set to expire over the summer, meaning there’s a good chance he wouldn’t join Inter Miami until the middle of the season if he signed with them.

“With Kieran, that is a possibility,” Henderson’s previously said. “We have had some initial talks with him. We are also looking at other options, but it could be that it plays out that if he is the one we land on, he could come after.”

Henderson and Jones have already worked together, with Henderson serving as the Seattle Sounders’ vice president of soccer and sporting director when Seattle acquired Jones from the Chicago Fire — where he started his MLS career in 2015 — in January 2016.

The Miami Herald reported last week that Inter Miami were considering signing Jones.

Jones, 29, played the 2016 and 2017 seasons with Seattle, mainly as a starter, before playing two seasons with German club Darmstadt 98 from 201719. He returned to Seattle for the 2019 season, spending two more years with the team before the club declined his contract option for the 2021 season in December 2020, making him a free agent.

He’s appeared in 121 matches (102 starts) during his five-year MLS career, scoring six goals and adding 20 assists during that timespan.

Jones made 13 appearances (10 starts) for Seattle during in 2020, recording two goals and three assists during the regular season.

He started all four of the Sounders’ playoff games, with Seattle falling to the Columbus Crew, 3-0, in the MLS Cup final.

Jones recorded a career-high 11 assists in 2017 and was a part of the Seattle teams that won the MLS Cup in 2016 and 2019.

According to his bio on the MLS’s website, Jones is a “defender with pure wingback sensibilities who lives to push into the opponent’s final third as an added attacker. A capable crosser with good instincts, Jones doesn’t skimp on the defensive end either as a capable [heads-up] defender who will routinely run down attacks from seemingly nowhere.”

Jones has also played for the Trinidad and Tobago men’s national team since 2010, scoring nine goals in 76 appearances.

Sunderland forward to USL team

Mitch Curry, a Sunderland Under-23 forward/winger, is expected to make a move to Inter Miami’s organization, but he won’t start with the MLS team.

Curry, a 21-year old Newcastle, England native, is expected sign with the club’s League One affiliate — Fort Lauderdale CF — a source confirmed to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

The move means Curry would start his playing career in the U.S. with Inter Miami’s USL team, with the potential to move up to the MLS team if he impresses.

Because he’d be with the USL team, Inter Miami, who don’t have an open MLS international roster slot on their MLS roster, wouldn’t have to use an international roster spot to complete the Curry signing.

Curry started his senior career with Middlesbrough of the English League Championship — England’s second-highest soccer division after the Premier League — in 2017 after spending his youth career with the English soccer club.

He was loaned to multiple clubs in Europe before signing with Sunderland in September 2020.

Curry has only made one appearance with Sunderland — in December — since the signing.

Sunderland is the same club Lewis Morgan played for in 2019 when he was on loan from Celtic FC before he signed with Inter Miami in January 2020.

TED S WARREN/AP Former Seattle Sounders defender Joevin Jones, right, has been linked to Inter Miami.