Where we left off last year
2025 season: 28 points, 15th in the Western Conference, 27th in MLS
Two words define Sporting Kansas City’s 2025 campaign better than most: struggle and change.
On the field, Kansas City floundered, finishing near the bottom of the league. The attack was undermanned. The defense was undertalented. In short, the roster was filled with misses.
The result? Change. Club legend Peter Vermes was fired after serving as SKC’s chief soccer officer in addition to coaching 609 matches for SKC across all competitions, a figure that totaled more than half of the club’s games across their 30-year existence. Though Vermes is a legend of the game in the U.S., it was time for a shift. With a regularly negative xG differential to close out his tenure, tactical cohesion lagged and talent acquisition lagged even harder.
With a slew of expiring contracts now off the books, it’s time to see just how Sporting Kansas City looks in the real post-Vermes era.
What changed in the offseason
Notable arrivals:
- David Lee, chief soccer officer: Hired away from New York City FC, where he held an equivalent position, Lee was appointed to lead Kansas City’s front office back at the end of September. Lee, who helped build consistently strong NYCFC teams, stepped into the roster-building portion of Vermes’ job and was given quite a bit of flexibility. Only 12 players remained in the squad following the club’s end-of-season roster decisions, a DP spot was open (and will likely stay that way until 2027), and a coach was yet to be hired. Speaking of a coach…
- Raphael Wicky, manager: Some MLS fans will remember Wicky from his time in charge of the Chicago Fire, who struggled with the Swiss coach on the sidelines. Purge that time from your memory. Wicky was strapped to a sinking Georg Heitz-captained ship with one of the worst rosters in recent MLS history. Of course, Wicky, who stopped back in his native country between MLS jobs, will need better players to really thrive in Kansas City.
