Sounders land a motivated Dempsey

SEATTLE — For the past few seasons playing in England, even as he participated in a Europa League final with Fulham and was on the cusp of a Champions League berth at Tottenham Hotspur, Clint Dempsey felt the pull to come back to America grow stronger.

He didn’t want to be an aging player on the back side of his career when he finally made the decision to return to Major League Soccer.

“I was already starting to get the itch to be honest with you, to come back to the States. I just missed being in America. I wanted to help continue the growth of the game here. You can’t help the growth of the game if you come back and you don’t perform,” Dempsey said Monday after he was formally introduced as the newest designated player for the Seattle Sounders.

“I understand there is a lot of pressure on me to succeed, a lot of expectations that others have on me, but also the expectations I put on myself and when I decided to come back to this league, I want to make an impact. I want to win things.”

The 30-year-old Dempsey played for the New England Revolution from 2004-06 before joining Fulham in 2007. He moved to Tottenham last summer and scored 12 goals in 43 games, but wasn’t a regular starter for the Spurs while being used in rotation with other attacking players. Dempsey had two years remaining on his contract at Tottenham.