PORTLAND, Ore. – This week, the Portland Timbers made a commitment to two players with an eye towards continued success with their announcement that midfielders Darlington Nagbe and Diego Charahad signed contract extensions that will keep them playing at Providence Park for the next several seasons.
The signings confirm two players who have been with the team since it first joined Major League Soccer for the 2011 season and ensure continuity for a dynamic midfield that helped lead the Timbers to its first-ever championship trophy last December.
Head coach Caleb Porter praised the signings, explaining how critical both players are to the team's on-field success.
“It's important to keep your core,” he said after training on Friday. “That's our goal. We know we have good players. We know we have a good team. We want to sustain that core so we can keep winning.”
“What we're doing is really simple,” Porter added. “We want to keep our top players here. We want to keep them together. And we want to keep that continuity which will help us hopefully maintain consistency in performance and will hopefully help us win more and more games and more and more trophies.”
For their parts, both players said that the decision to remain in Portland was an easy one.
“I feel that they have confidence in me,” Chara said. “I feel great with that. I think it's a great deal for both [sides] and now I feel happy and ready to play.”
His teammate of over five years concurs.
“It feels good,” Nagbe said on Friday. “I started out here so hopefully I can end up here, but it feels good to sign a new contract and be able to play with these guys again and play in Portland.”
Both Nagbe and Chara have spent their entire MLS careers with the Timbers. Since 2011, Nagbe has appeared in over 160 regular season matches, while Chara has logged nearly 13,000 minutes in the midfield. With his next regular season appearance, Nagbe will become the team's all-time leader in games played.
Last year, the pair's time in Portland culminated with the team's first-ever MLS Cup championship.
No wonder then that Nagbe felt that the best part of signing the extension was doing so alongside his longtime teammate, friend, and on-field mentor.
“I feel like I learn a lot playing with him [and] not just on the field,” Nagbe said. “He's a good example for every person here, so it's been a pleasure playing with him.”
- QUICK STRIKES: Five numbers to know for #PORvCLB
Chara, meanwhile, has seen both Major League Soccer and the Timbers grow from year to year since first moving to the States from Colombian first division side Deportes Tolima.
“I feel the league now has more quality in the play, different good players, foreign players,” Chara noted. “I think this league each year has grown up. I feel good to be a part of the league.”
Nagbe, meanwhile, noted that the entire signing process went as smoothly as possible.
According to Nagbe, though, no opinion, not even his own, carried more weight than that of his wife, Felicia.
“The biggest decision was just, was my family happy? Was my wife happy?” Nagbe said, smiling. “And she is, so….”
Now, Nagbe and Chara can continue their productive midfield partnership in Portland for years to come.
