Dwyer Officially Re-Signed, Sporting Close on Marin and Hungarian Nemeth

What'd been hinted at since the weekend and even officially stated by Robb Heineman on Sports Radio 810 is now officially true. Today, Sporting KC formally announced that Dom Dwyer had signed a contract extension with Sporting Kansas City. Dwyer had a break out year in 2014, scoring 22 goals in league play, and 24 in all competitions, both were club records that had stood since the team's inaugural season, when Preki set the records.

While Dwyer says that the deal is a sign to "back off right now" it also helps KC out if teams don't back off. The new deal increases any potential transfer fee a team wants to pay to get Dwyer's services.

Also today, Sam McDowell with the Star was able to get confirmation from a source on KC's side of things that the club was in discussions with Chilean goalkeeper, Luis Marin. Reports out of Chile have been linking Marin with a move to MLS for a little while now, and over the weekend he was linked with Sporting KC. And while McDowell says the club is still finalizing the contracts, reports in Chile say that Marin is set to sign a four year deal with the club.

McDowell was also able to put a name to the forward that KC was close to signing, presumably the one that Heineman mentioned in his interview with 810. Krisztian Nemeth, a Hungarian is fairly well traveled having played in Hungary, England, Greece, and the Netherlands looks headed to Kansas City. While only 25, Nemeth has, on paper, a great pedigree, having been under contract with both Liverpool and Olympiacos, but made minimal appearances for the two clubs, spending most of his time with the reserves or on loan. Still, the talent is there that originally attracted the English club to him. He helped lead the Liverpool reserves to the championship in their division when he was with the club. Nemeth has also featured for his national team, playing 15 times for the full Hungarian national team, scoring once and was a fixture in the country's youth system. Most recently, he was with Roda JC Kerkrade of the Dutch league, scoring 8 goals in 19 league appearances for the club in the 2013-2014 season. If he can find his form, and if he can stay healthy (an issue that marred his time with both Liverpool and Olympiacos) he can be successful in KC and could be a steal of a signing.

Sporting KC Closing in on Re-Signing Dwyer

In a week that say the team trade two long serving and well liked players in Aurelien Collin and CJ Sapong, and saw the departure of play-by-play man, Callum Williams, Sporting KC fans really needed some good news this week. Fans finally got some tonight thanks to a Tweet from team president, Robb Heineman.

While it doesn't appear to be 100% quite yet, based on the Tweet from Heineman, is seems it'd be a shock if Dom Dwyer is not re-signed to a new contract soon by the club. According to Heineman's Tweet, there are apparently still some agent details to work out, but "Dwyer will b in kc 4 3 more (at least)."

This was certainly a much needed step for Kansas City and for Dwyer. What it does for KC, is that it not only locks down their team's main forward and single season record holder, but it also means that if Dwyer continues his goal scoring form that he showed in the 2014 season, and a team in England or Europe comes calling, the price for his services goes up.

For Dwyer, re-signing will likely see him get a decent pay bump from his salary last year, which had a base of $80,000 and a guaranteed compensation of $92,500 per the players union. Hopefully he can continue his goal scoring form.

Contract Extension for Vermes

It appears Peter Vermes is going to stay around KC.  Since the offseason, Robb Heineman has mentioned on Twitter that there were trying to get a deal done to extend Vermes contract. The Star is reporting this morning that Vermes has signed an extension that will keep him in KC through 2017.

Vermes became the technical director of KC back in 2006, shortly after OnGoal bought the team from Hunt Sports Group. He became head coach mid-season in 2009, taking over from Curt Onalfo after he was fired.  Since then, Vermes has gone on to become the second winningest coach in KC's history behind Bob Gansler. Since taking over, Sporting KC is 55-40-36 in MLS play.  Since the opening of Sporting Park though the team has been one of the best in the league, winning back to back regular season Eastern Conference Championships.

Probably the biggest part of Vermes success has been his scouting and development of talent.  He's been responsible for helping to bring in the majority of the team as it exists now.  The only player still with Sporting KC that is pre-Vermes is back up goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg.  Every other player on the roster has been brought in since Vermes was named technical director. He's helped turn the likes of Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, and Graham Zusi into solid contributors to their national team. Vermes has his critics still, but you can't argue with his success in bringing in and developing players.

New Contract Coming for Zusi

Earlier this season there were rumors circulating that Sporting KC was trying to get Graham Zusi signed to a new long term deal with the club. Those rumors fell away shortly after that, and then Zusi had solid performances for the USA in a number of World Cup qualifiers, solidifying himself in Jurgen Klinsmann's starting 11. With that happening, thoughts turned away from rumors of signing him to an extension and instead turned to how long he'd be here before making the jump to Europe.

It seemed inevitable that Zusi would leave for Europe sooner than later.  The thought was that if we were lucky he'd be here through the World Cup to help him keep his place on the US World Cup team.

That has changed today though with news from Brian Sciaretta on Yanks Abroad.  Sciaretta reported tonight that Zusi had signed a new contract with Sporting KC, that was pending league approval.

If that didn't get you excited enough, then after that article surfaced, Robb Heineman took to Twitter:

Hope u r ok w @gzusi being around for awhile.  I REALLY wanted to leak this, but agents.....anyway....ZEUS!!!! #WowI'mHappy #thanksMyFriend
— Robb Heineman (@RobbHeineman) June 28, 2013

The confirmation of Sciaretta's story lifts fans spirits about Zusi's history in KC.  And while Zusi can still leave, the signing of a new deal likely raises the transfer fee quite a bit with the extra years on the contract.

The question would be now what Zusi's new contract is worth.  In February of 2012, Zusi signed a new contract with Sporting KC that upped his salary from about $42,000 a year to over $100,000 a year.

So what does this contract bump Zusi to?  I'm not sure it'll bump him all the way to DP level, but I think it at least probably puts him into the $250,000 to $300,000 per year.  Which would still be a very nice bump in salary for the former Maryland man.

Per Tod Palmer with the KC Star, the extension is a 3 year extension, keeping him in KC through the 2017 season if he stays through the end of the contract.

Besler Re-Signs with Sporting

Sporting KC's defense from last season will remain intact for the 2013 MLS season with the news today that Matt Besler is re-signing with the club.  Robb Heineman posted pictures on Twitter this morning that would appear to show Besler signing and faxing his new contract.  Then Besler confirmed re-signing on Sports Radio 810am in KC this morning

The 2012 defender of the year, Besler, had offers from England, including Queen's Park Rangers, Birmingham City, and Southampton, as well as a Belgian club, apparently KAA Gent but turned them down, instead choosing to return to his home town team, Sporting.  The contract though will lock up Besler in KC for at least a few more years and should see him get a bit of a pay raise as well. 

Getting Besler re-signed had to be a massive priority for the offseason for KC.  Losing Besler along with Roger Espinoza, and the release of Julio Cesar would have been a big blow to KC's defense after a record breaking year for them.  Besler's solid, steady play allowed Aurelien Collin to take risks with his play as Besler was there to cover.  His play has also earned him national team attention, earning a call up for the friendly against Mexico earlier this year and calls for him to get a further look in the January camp as well as potential call ups for qualifiers.  The re-signing, along with the trade for Benny Feilhaber gives KC five players (Teal Bunbury, CJ Sapong, and Graham Zusi the other 3) to receive national team call ups in the last year.  Add in Peter Joseph's Haiti call ups, Kei Kamara's Sierra Leone call ups, and even Lawrence Olum being invited into camp with Kenya and there are a number of international players on KC's roster.  Which could certainly be a challenge come the summer with internationals matches and the Gold Cup.

But this was an absolute must move for KC.  While Olum is a decent back up, he's not a long term starter and losing Besler would have pushed him into that role.  Now KC keeps their defense together while keeping one of the faces of the team and the city on the roster

Gyorio Turns Down Offer from Sporting KC

For a while it looked like Canadian trialist, Mozzi Gyorio was going to become a Sporting KC player. He'd spent plenty of the preseason with KC, getting time in the tournament in Orlando. He'd come back to KC with the team, but then headed off to join the Canadian U23 camp ahead of Olympic qualifying. Gyorio didn't make the final roster for qualifying for Canada and so thoughts turned back to whether he would sign with KC. Word out of Canada is that KC did offer Gyorio a contract, but the Canadian has turned down the offer. Gyorio is still looking for a new club, but is apparently also hoping to get an improved offer from Sporting KC. It'll be interesting to see if he does get one, it'll be a sign about how highly Peter Vermes thinks of the 22 year old.

New Contract for Sapong

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

The new contract signing that Robb Heineman mentioned on Twitter the other day has finally been announced. Last year's rookie of the year, CJ Sapong has earned himself a new contract. Last year, Sapong made $42,000 as a rookie. Sapong is likely getting himself a nice raise, although we won't know how much until the MLS players' union releases this year's salary figures.

The length of the contract was not announced either. Usually though, MLS deals are 4 year deals. Generally they're 2 years and then 2 1 year option deals that the club holds. The deal not only rewards Sapong for the role that he's played with the team by giving him more money, but it also locks him up long term for KC should a foreign club come calling. Sapong in the past has talked about his interest to eventually play abroad, but in a great interview on Talkin' Touches with Andy Edwards, Sapong sounds content right now to meet the challenges in front of him in MLS. Sapong says he's happy where he's at, but did say: "down the road, when I'm not getting the challenges I need here, when I need to go overseas and take my game to that next level then I'll exercise those options."

Sapong looks set to get plenty of minutes, at least over the next few weeks with Teal Bunbury gone with the US U23 team for Olympic qualifying.

Zusi Signs Extension

Last weekend, Robb Heineman posted on Twitter that "pending league approval got another guy resigned". Speculation on who that was ran around for a few days. The two names that were regularly brought up were Matt Besler and Graham Zusi. The two had breakout years last year, with Besler stepping up and anchoring the central defense for KC and becoming an asset on set pieces, especially with his long throw. While he may not have gotten a ton of assists off them, Besler helped set up at least 5 goals with his throw ins. Zusi as well become a threat on set pieces, playing in some great corners and free kicks, leading the team in assists with 7, and also scored 5 goals as well.

Today, Heineman confirmed that they had re-signed Zusi to a new 4 year contract. This move has obviously been met enthusiasm from most fans that I've seen. It locks in a fan favorite for the next 4 years. Zusi will play the prime years of his career in KC. And should a club come calling after Zusi, KC will get themselves a nice transfer fee from the move if it were to ever happen. For quotes directly from Zusi check out the Star's article. Congrats to Graham.

Nielsen Contract Extension

Gooch over on The Full 90 posted this earlier today, but word out of Denmark is that the SKC has extended the contract of Jimmy Nielsen for another year. Originally reports of his contract were that it was a 1 plus 1 contract with the second year being an option year, based off of that and this news it looks like the option was picked up and the team negotiated Nielsen's salary a bit as well. For more confirmation on this, just look at Nielsen's status yesterday on Facebook, where he posted: "Jimmy Kjær Nielsen is planning on winning the championship with Sporting KC next year!!! SO looking forward to one more year with you guys!!!"

Based off of that and the comments in the Danish article, it appears that Nielsen is only looking for one more playing year here, maybe he's contemplating retirement, or maybe he's looking to go back to Denmark, we'll have to wait and see. Overall Nielsen has stepped in a picked up basically where Kevin Hartman left off. He hasn't been a big upgrade over Hartman, many would say it was a lateral movement skill wise, but he still saved points for KC last season when needed.

Zusi Signed

Thad at The Back Post has the story that Wizards second round draft pick, Graham Zusi has officially signed with the team. According to Thad's report, Zusi has signed a senior contract with Kansas City. Definitely a deserving contract, as Zusi has had a fantastic preseason, and based on other reports seems likely to come in as a preseason favorite for rookie of the year. Zusi also appears poised to start the season opener against Toronto if the lineup in the last preseason friendly against Minnesota is the lineup they go with on Saturday.

Lopez' New Salary

Saturday we found out that Claudio Lopez would be returning to KC for the 2009 season. We also found out that Lopez will not take up a designated player spot next season. Today we hear from Ives Galarcep again with more details on the new deal. According to Ives, Lopez new contract is for 1/4 the cost his contract was last year. Lopez' contract next year will apparently only be $200,000. So not only does Lopez' new contract free up the Wizards designated player slot, but also frees up another $200,000 under the cap. Add that to the $100,000 plus the Wizards were paying of Dave van den Bergh's salary last year, Carlos Marinelli's $115,000 salary, Kerry Zavagnin's $170,000 contract, and the contracts of Ivan Trujillo and Ryan Pore, and the Wizards have plenty of cap space to work with this offseason.

One would think that this would put the Wizards in line to line up another designated player, but in the same article, Ives says that the Wizards appear unlikely to lose that slot and instead strengthen the full squad. But with somewhere close to $600,000 in cap space and the now smaller roster size, I'm personally a little worried that the Wizards may play the 2009 season with quite a bit of cap space. Now some of that money will be going to salary increases, like Jack Jewsbury's new deal that likely puts him over the $100,000 a year mark. Still there would appear to be a lot of money still available in the cap and I just struggle to see how the Wizards use most of that cap space. But we shall see.

Lopez Returning

Claudio Lopez will be returning to KC next year, but he'll be doing so without the high price tag. Ives Galarcep over at ESPN Soccernet is reporting that the Wizards have signed Lopez to a new contract that is "considerably less than the $800,000 in guaranteed salary he earned as a Designated Player in 2008".

On his blog, Ives has added onto this story by saying that Lopez salary cap hit next year could be as low as half of this past years $400,000 cap hit. Whether his actually salary is that low, or the Wizards are using allocation money to pay it down (similar to what Columbus had been doing with Guillermo Barros Schelotto) remains to be seen.

This is good news on a couple fronts, as it not only gives the Wizards their designated player slot back to use on another player if they want, but it also gives the Wizards cap room to play with, as well as keeps a locker room leader around next year. Last year Lopez scored 6 goals and had 7 assists in MLS play, including a goal and 2 assists in the Wizards dramatic 3-2 win over San Jose late in the season that basically assured the Wizards of a playoff birth.

Contract News

With the team now looking towards the 2009 season, there is some good news to report today on two players that played a big part in the Wizards team this year. Bob Rusert of MLSnet, in his article about Peter Vermes and Curt Onalfo looking towards the 2009 season tells us that Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury have signed 4 year extensions to their current deals with MLS. While this shouldn't be either players final contract, it certainly keeps the two in KC for the forseeable future. Arnaud signed his extension back in September, as for Jewsbury, the article doesn't state when he signed his. All we can hope is that with his contract extension Jewsbury gets a raise from the $55,000 he made with the Wizards this year. The move of Arnaud and Jewsbury to the center of midfield was a big key in the Wizards late season run to the playoffs.