Sporting KC signs Manager Peter Vermes to five-year contract extension through 2028
Sporting Kansas City have signed manager and sporting director Peter Vermes on a five-year contract extension through the 2028 season, the club announced today.
In his 15th season as Sporting manager, Vermes has won four major championships – the 2013 MLS Cup and the 2012, 2015 and 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cups – and guided the club to ten playoff appearances, the fourth most by a head coach in the MLS History. His 183 regular-season wins make him the fourth-winning coach of all time, and his four major trophies place him third among active head coaches behind only Bruce Arena (New England Revolution) and Bob Bradley (Toronto FC). He is also the only active MLS manager to have won three US Open Cup titles.
“Peter is a superlative strategic thinker who loves to win and hates to lose,” said Mike Illig, co-owner and CEO of Sporting KC. “He continually demonstrates his commitment to our ownership goal of making Sporting KC an enduring favorite in a league that gets tougher and tougher every year. He is also fully dedicated to our long-term strategy of developing high-potential young players into the next generation of sports professionals. Over the past 14 seasons, Peter has earned the recognition and respect of many footballers at regional, national and across the MLS community. We have faith that his undaunted leadership will help bring more trophies to this club and city.”
Vermes, who took up his current role in 2009, is the longest-serving head coach in MLS history and one of the longest-serving managers in world football. He has coached 516 games for Sporting in all competitions – more than half the games in the club’s 28-year history and most ever for a manager at an MLS club – and is fourth in MLS with 437 regular-season games overseen -Charts. His 15 seasons at the helm of Sporting are the longest in Kansas City’s professional sports history.
Vermes was named Kansas City technical director in November 2006 and assumed head coaching duties on August 4, 2009, marking the beginning of a successful era as the club renamed Sporting KC and premier Children’s Mercy Park ahead of the 2011 campaign had moved. He led Sporting to first place in the Eastern Conference in 2011 and 2012, including a club-record 63-point regular season in 2012. That same year, Vermes and Sporting won the US Open Cup — the club’s first trophy since 2004 — with one famous home win over Seattle Sounders FC, decided on penalties.
Sporting reached greater heights in 2013, winning the club’s second MLS Cup with a penalty shoot-out win over Real Salt Lake at Children’s Mercy Park, when Vermes became the first person to win an MLS Cup as a player and coach with the same team. Previously, he led Kansas City to their first championship title in 2000 as a standout central defender. Vermes experienced other highlights in 2013 when he coached the MLS All-Stars at the 2013 MLS All-Star Game at Children’s Mercy Park and was inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame.
Vermes led Sporting to a club-record eight straight playoff appearances from 2011-18 and added two more open trophies to the trophy case during that time – a shootout triumph at the Philadelphia Union in 2015 and a 2-1 home win over New York Red Bulls in 2017.
In early 2019, Vermes was named the inaugural MLS Sporting Executive of the Year, receiving the award for his exemplary leadership, dedication and strategic vision in leading Sporting to long-term success. As the club’s sporting director, he oversees all football activities including scouting, squad management and the development of Sporting KC II and the Sporting KC Academy.
In 2020, Vermes was instrumental in helping MLS establish detailed return-to-play protocols during Covid and led Sporting to the top of the Western Conference regular-season standings for the second time in three seasons. His four first conference spots since 2011 is more than any other MLS manager. In the 2021 season, Sporting remained a force in the West, finishing in first place by three points and securing 10th place in the playoffs in 11 seasons.
A native of Delran Township, New Jersey, Vermes began a successful playing career that spanned from 1988-2002. He earned 67 caps for the United States men’s national team, notably representing his country at the 1988 Summer Olympics in South Korea and the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy.
Vermes was the first American player to compete in the top divisions of Hungary (1989) and the Netherlands (1990), then spent four seasons in Spain’s second division (1991-1995) before qualifying for Major League Soccer’s inaugural season in 1996 returned to the US. He started in 208 of 209 MLS games in seven seasons, scoring 11 goals and 19 assists and making the playoffs every year.
Vermes joined Kansas City ahead of the club’s historic 2000 season, winning the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup doubles and earning MLS All-Star, Best XI and Defender of the Year honors. He ended his playing career after the 2002 season, his third with Kansas City, and was involved in a record 670 MLS games (including playoffs and MLS is Back Tournament) as a player or head coach.