If it wasn’t obvious already, Sporting Kansas City have officially entered their 180° rebuild phase.

On March 31st, 2025, after nearly 16 seasons with Sporting Kansas City, the club mutually parted ways with long-time Technical Director & Head Coach Peter Vermes. Vermes was one of the longest-serving managers in global soccer. The club named Kerry Zavagnin as interim head coach in March. 

Another MLS squad that seemed winless early on this season, it took SKC 10 games (April 5th) to find their first win of the season. 

The biggest news from this season for SKC was the hiring of David Lee as President of Soccer Operations & General Manager on a seven-year contract in September of 2025. Lee will serve as the teams CSO & will play an executive leadership role in all areas of Sporting’s soccer enterprise, including first-team roster management, player recruitment, scouting, analytics, technical staff oversight and the continued development of Sporting KC II and the Sporting KC Academy. He will oversee Sporting Director Mike Burns, who was hired in mid-June of 2024.

In short – Sporting struggled all season & it was no shock to see them finish last place in the Western Conference this season.

There’s a lot of change needed in order for this team to become a successful one once again. In the offseason guide:

The Positives

Acquiring Dejan Joveljić for $4,000,000 might be the signing of the season in regard to inter-MLS deals. After the deal, Joveljić was signed to a Designated Player contract running through 2027 with an option for 2028. In his first season with SKC, Joveljić provided 20 goal contributions (18 goals & 2 assists). He would finish T-5th in the MLS golden boot race.

Along with Joveljić, SKC relied heavily on Dániel Sallói, who had 11 goal contributions of his own (7 goals & 4 assists)

With David Lee taking control, this club is undergoing a complete turnaround.

This group is entering the offseason with ONLY 12 players rostered & have the ability to completely change their roster.

With the framework of Dejan Joveljić, Manu Garcia, & Dániel Sallói, the club has a lot of work to do and a lot of room to make changes.

The Negatives

Defensively, this team was tragic. It’s no shock to see that Mike Burns is essentially nuking the roster to the point that only two defenders (Ian James & Jansen Miller) remained on the roster.

SKC allowed the most goals out of any team in the league. 70 goals in a single season. Simply not good enough.

Adding to that, SKC offensively struggled too. With only 46 total goals scored, they did better than some teams, however, when you calculate what Joveljić & Sallói contributed, they scored 54% of their total goals. If the team lost either of those players, this team would’ve looked even worse.

Roster Flexibility

Sporting Kansas City enters this offseason with an unbelievable amount of flexibility. At the moment, the club has two designated players (Dejan Joveljić & Manu Garcia) and have 0 U-22 initiative signings. This club can decide whether or not it wants to enter the 3DP, 3U22 player model or enter the 2DP and 4 U-22s model, which includes up to $2 million in GAM, pending which route they go. They have every single U22 slot open.

The club announced their end-of-season roster update, where they announced most contract option decisions. The club is entering the 2026 season with 12 players rostered. 

David Lee & Mike Burns have a lot of decisions to make. This roster rebuild is NOT going to happen overnight & the expectation is that this will be a multi-year process. 

Offseason Priorities

Priority #1 for David Lee & Mike Burns is to determine the club’s next head coach. If interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin is going to remain as the head coach, it is imperative that he & Burns begin working on this roster immediately.

Priority #2 for SKC is their backline & goalkeeper position. The club is entering the offseason with 2 defenders (17-year-old Ian James & 23-year-old Jansen Miller) & 2 goalkeepers (17-year-old Jack Kortkamp & 24-year-old John Pulskamp). If the club is going to make strides, they need to improve those positions with some talented veteran players.

Priority #3 is finding offensive threats to assist Garcia, Joveljić, & Sallói. If this team wants to be “successful”, they need to surround their talented assets with some better pieces. 

Again, this isn’t going to happen overnight. This is a multi-year process that Lee & Burns need to get right.