- Valter Sedin, son of Henrik Sedin, signed his first MLS short-term agreement with the Whitecaps on Saturday
- The call-up landed on Henrik and Daniel Sedin’s 45th birthday, a day after the twins were on the ice for Canucks Fan Fest
- Read below for how Thomas Muller and head coach Jesper Sorensen reacted to his practice reps
Henrik Sedin was on the ice at Rogers Arena on Friday night for the Canucks’ Fan Fest alumni game. A day later, his son put him in a much tougher spot.
Valter Sedin signed his first MLS short-term agreement with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday and was named to the bench for the visit from D.C. United. The call-up landed on the same day Henrik and his twin brother Daniel turned 45.
The 19-year-old midfielder grew up in the Whitecaps academy system before a stint with Sweden’s Hammarby IF, then returned to Vancouver last month on his first pro contract with WFC2. He started four of his five appearances there and picked up two assists.
Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sorensen was asked what he saw from Sedin after the midfielder trained with the first team earlier in the week.
“With Valter, we have an interesting young prospect who is a promising midfield player with great physical attributes in terms of stamina, and he has great running capacity,” Sorensen said. “He’s also technically skilled. He’s one of the other players on the MLS Next team who are very talented, and it’s great for us to have players who are talented and ready to move up if need be.”
German World Cup winner Thomas Muller, in his first season in Vancouver, got asked the same question by Daily Faceoff’s Ben Steiner. He didn’t need reminding whose son he was watching.
“You mean the son of Henrik?” Muller said. “He was in the defensive part, so he was kind of just running after the ball. They did a great job, the red team. We had no big chances to score. What that means about Mr. Sedin, I think we have to wait a bit.”
Sedin stayed on the bench the whole way as Vancouver and D.C. United played to a 3-3 draw. Kimi Nono had a brace for the visitors, and Brian White and Bruno Caicedo answered for a Whitecaps team that still sits atop the Western Conference at 15-6-5.
His actual MLS minutes are still ahead. But for one night, the son of a Canucks legend got to share a birthday with his dad and uncle by pulling on a Whitecaps kit of his own.
