2018 Player Profiles: Stephen Obayan Sunday

It looks like 2018 might have been Sunny’s final season in an RSL kit. I’ll call it bittersweet. With a salary hit of $275,000, I’m just not sure RSL is his best fit. His play is too inconsistent. When he’s hot, he has spectacular matches. When he makes mistakes, they seem to come in truckloads. He’s mentioned wanting to remain in MLS, but right now it’s uncertain where he’ll wind up. Count on him not returning to RSL.

Sunny played 1,414 minutes, starting sixteen of his twenty-three games played, and put forth one assist. Now, as a CDM, it’s not really expected that Sunny grab a ton of goals and assists; his contributions come in the form of distribution, broken-up plays, and field management. Assistance in defense. Relief of pressure. In that role, he’s had some spectacular outings for RSL; however, at thirty years old, it just doesn’t look like he’s in RSL’s future plans—we’ll likely get another season out of Beckerman, and he’s our guy. From there, it’s time to transition to younger players and that’s not Sunny.

We had good times and bad. Look to Sunny to move on, perhaps to a rival club, perhaps to a different league. He certainly still has contributions to make. Probably three to five years worth. He could be the CDM addition another team is desperate for. He might just thrive outside of Kyle’s shadow.