Sebastian Lletget has championship aspirations after being traded to New England Revolution

On Thursday the New England Revolution officially announced that they acquired Sebastian Lletget and the midfielder met with the media to discuss the move.

New England acquired the 29-year-old’s services in exchange for $500,000 in General Allocation Money. The LA Galaxy may also receive additional future GAM if certain performance-based conditions are met.

The midfielder has spent seven seasons in LA tallying 23 goals and 27 assists, from 2015 to 2021.

“First and foremost, I was super excited,” said Lletget. “There was interest around the league and things like that. There can always be interest, but until a club actually takes that next step, takes the initiative, and really kind of really shows that they want you, I think Bruce and New England did that. That’s what really got me excited. And again, going into a good team. There were a lot of good teams out there last year, but I think New England exceeded everybody’s expectations. It was amazing to watch. So, now, to be a part of that, as soon as I heard that was a possibility, it was impossible not to get excited. And along the lines of Bruce, I’m just super excited. It’s kind of a full-circle moment. He’s the one that brought me to LA Galaxy, he’s the one that gave me my first cap on the [United States] National Team. Now circling back with him in New England, it’s set up to be something great. Of course, there’s going to be challenges along the way. There’s going to be bumps on the road. But I’m just very excited. It’s hard to tell what the future’s going to hold. I hope we lift up some silverware. That’s my goal. I want to win. I haven’t been able to do that at the Galaxy for one reason or another, but I think this is going to be the challenge that I’m looking for.”

Bruce Arena is also happy to be reunited with Lletget.

“In Sebastian Lletget, we have acquired a midfielder who has experienced success at both the MLS and international levels,” Arena said. “He is a talented player who is a dependable box-to-box player, can score goals, and is an excellent team player. Sebastian is a great addition to our team.”

Lletget has a lot of respect for the United States soccer legend. It’s no surprise that the 29-year-old would want to be reunited with the head coach.

“With Bruce, I think you’re going to hear that a lot from me and I’m sure you’ve heard it from other players,” he said. “I don’t know how he does it. He has this secret sauce about him as far as managing groups and managing players as individuals. Since day one, since he signed me with the Galaxy, I could definitely understand right away why he’s had so much success. The fact that he’s proven it again and again, now coming into a new club, especially after everything with the [United States Men’s] National Team and stuff like that, it just proves everything, what we all thought about him. In my experience, he’s always been great. I’ve always been grateful for him, for giving me that first opportunity. Now, being more experienced, I’ve played in a lot of games, played in different types of games, I think now I can really offer something different as opposed to when I was younger. I think he knows that. He’s always valued veteran types of players, players with experience and that’s what I want to bring to this team.”

It will be interesting to see where Lletget ends up on the field. He has the potential to play either out wide as a replacement for Tajon Buchanan or centrally in a standard No. 10 role. The 29-year-old does have a preference for where he plays and it sounds like he has talked to Arena around where he will play.

“As far as positionally, I’ve always been an attacking central midfielder,” said Lletget. “That was part of some issues that I had at my previous club, that I bounced around from position to position, and I’ve never been given that chance to master one position. That’s always been something that I’ve never really understood, but it’s always kind of panned out that way. Maybe because I can play other positions, but it’s always been my goal to master one. I think that’s one of the biggest conversations that I’ve had with Bruce is, ‘Is that the type of role that I can play on this team?’ and his answer was, ‘Yes.’ That’s kind of what he was already thinking. We definitely saw eye to eye on that.”

This could have ramifications on where Carles Gil lines up as well as the entire starting XI in general.

But there is no doubt that the Revolution have made their club stronger and fans will anxiously be waiting to see him make his debut at Gillette Stadium.