The Seattle Sounders announced the signing of Nouhou Tolo to a first team contract on Thursday. He appeared in 24 games for the USL’s Seattle Sounders FC 2 in 2016.

Tolo, 19, hails from Douala, Cameroon, and joined S2 in April 2016 from Cameroonian club Rainbow FC. The 5-foot-10, 175-pound defender led S2 with 2,061 minutes last season.

“Nouhou performed admirably for S2 last season and we’re excited to add him to the first team roster in 2017,” said Sounders General Manager and President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey, who noted in December that the Sounders were planning on promoting Tolo to back up Joevin Jones. “It’s important that we continue to build players up through our developmental pipeline, and here is another good example of a young player who earned his opportunity to represent the first team.”

The Sounders will travel to Tucson, Ariz., for more preseason training starting on Jan. 29 before participating in the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, S.C., in the middle of February.