The wooing process of Nicolas Lodeiro was probably the most involved in Seattle Sounders history. Considering some of the previous transfer sagas — from Obafemi Martins to Clint Dempsey to Roman Torres — that’s saying something.

The Sounders first started talking to Lodeiro a few months ago and by the time the Copa America rolled around, the negotiations were moving into high gear.

That’s when an unexpected teammate stepped in to help the process. As Lagerwey tells the story, he was attempting to talk to Lodeiro through a combination of his own broken Spanish and the player’s limited English. At some point in the conversation, Lodeiro handed the phone to his roommate, Luis Suarez. Yes, the same Luis Suarez who scored more than 50 goals for Barcelona last year.

Anyway, it would appear Suarez did a good job of relaying whatever messages Lagerwey wanted because it wasn’t long after that Lodeiro had basically decided this was where he wanted to be.