Report: Andre Blake and the Union have struck a deal on a new contract

Negotiations on a deal had dragged on for a while, and Blake wasn't happy about it.

Andre Blake has been a Union stalwart for nearly a decade.Read moreHeather Khalifa / Staff Photographer

Published May 21, 2024, 4:48 p.m. ET

The Union and star goalkeeper Andre Blake have a deal for a new contract, The Athletic reported on Monday.

While the terms of the new deal aren’t known yet, it is known that Blake is in the last guaranteed year of his current contract, with a team option for next year. In recent weeks, the 33-year-old had been in a bit of a bad mood about the lack of progress in talks, and vented his frustrations publicly in a May 1 Instagram Story post that said: “When you are no longer happy it’s time…”

This should take care of that, although it won’t take care of the knee injury that has kept Blake out of the Union’s last four games. He’s almost back to full health, and it’s a big question whether he’ll return before he heads to Jamaica’s national team for most of June.

The current expectation is that Blake and other Union players with national team commitments will leave town after the June 1 game against CF Montréal. Before then, the Union visit Charlotte FC on Saturday (7:30 p.m., Apple TV) — their second straight game in an NFL stadium with hard artificial turf — then host Toronto FC next Wednesday.

The Reggae Boyz have their opening 2026 World Cup qualifiers on June 5 at home vs. the Dominican Republic and June 8 at Dominica. Then they turn to the Copa América, with group games against Mexico on June 22, Ecuador on June 26, and Venezuela on June 30. The last of those could see Blake and Damion Lowe face Union teammates José Andrés Martínez and Jesús Bueno.

Jamaica could get out of its group if all goes right, with a roster that should include three star attackers from the English Premier League: Fulham’s Bobby DeCordova-Reid, West Ham United’s Michail Antonio, and Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey.

Should that happen, reigning World Cup and Copa América champion Argentina would likely await in the quarterfinals. It would be Blake’s third time facing Lionel Messi, and he has lost the two so far: 3-0 with Jamaica against Argentina in September 2022 and 4-1 with the Union against Inter Miami in August.