Free agent right back Sean Franklin has elected to stay with D.C. United, remaining with a club where he has been a fixture over the past three seasons.
The club announced Monday that they signed the 31-year-old to a multiyear contract.
“Sean has been an important player for our team over the past three seasons,” Dave Kasper, the team's general manager and vice president of soccer operations, said in a club release announcing the new deal. “He has been among the best veteran defenders in the league, and his experience and leadership have been invaluable to us. We are pleased to have Sean back and look forward to his continued contributions in 2017.”
Franklin first came to United in December 2013, when they selected him in Stage 1 of that year's MLS Re-Entry Draft. He has been a mainstay on the back line since, then, also scoring four goals and adding six assists in regular-season and postseason MLS play during his three seasons with the Black and Red.
Before that, Franklin -- selected fourth overall in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft and that year's MLS Rookie of the Year -- spent his first six professional seasons with the LA Galaxy, where he won two MLS Cup titles and two Supporters' Shields -- including a Cup-Shield double in 2011.
