Sporting KC
Official: Sporting KC Transfers Alan Pulido to Chivas
Alan Pulido is moving on from Sporting Kansas City and will return to his former club, Chivas in Liga MX.
The rumors started swirling on Monday. It didn’t take long to become official. After numerous Mexican reporters put out that Alan Pulido and Sporting Kansas City were parting ways, Tom Bogert of GiveMeSport and Daniel Sperry of the KC Star confirmed it this evening.
Bogert is also reporting that the move opens up a Designated Player spot for Sporting KC.
The Mexican international joined Sporting KC back on December 10th of 2019 and has had an up and down journey with the club. That journey came to an end on Tuesday night.
Neither team has publicly confirmed the move yet and this story will be updated when they make it official. As of last night, it was rumored a $1.5 million transfer fee was also involved.
Update 9:46 PM: Sporting KC has made it official. The press release says it’s for an undisclosed fee.
Pulido’s History before Kansas City
The majority of Alan Pulido’s career has taken place in Mexico, and it looks like it may finish there. Before joining Sporting KC ahead of the 2020 season, Pulido played for four years at Chivas. He did another five at Tigres to start his professional career. Between to two Liga MX giants, he had stops in Greece at Levadiakos and Olympiacos.
Pulido helped lead Chivas to win the CONCACAF Champions League in 2018. In his final season at Chivas, he led the league in scoring with 12 goals in the Apertura season.
In total before coming to the States, Pulido won five domestic championships, the CCL and had 13 caps for the Mexican National Team.
Pulido’s History with Sporting KC
Pulido, who had garnered a record transfer fee at the time to go to Chivas, was then sold for a Sporting KC record (reportedly $6 million) to come to MLS. Alan’s time in Kansas City started fantastically. He made his debut alongside fellow Designated Player Gadi Kinda to start the 2020 season. He scored in back-to-back games against the Vancouver Whitecaps and Houston Dynamo before the world came to a halt due to COVID-19.
When play resumed in July, Pulido added four more goals in 10 games and added five assists that season. But the injuries started to show up. 2021 saw him only play in 21 games of a possible 34 league appearances, still scoring eight times in just 1,449 league minutes.
Then 2022 came and he never played a single minute due to injury.
108 of #SportingKC's 185 games across all competitions during his 5 seasons in KC. Injuries obviously played a BIG role in that, but 58% of games over 5 years for your highest paid player in club history just isn't good.
2023 started a little slow as he recovered from his prior year’s surgery, but he’d go on to have his most prolific and healthy season in KC. He scored 14 times in 2,207 league minutes earning a massive contract extension. His 2024 MLSPA salary came up just short of $3.9 million (though this could be front loaded).
Needless to say, his play and the performance of the team didn’t live up to that salary in 2024 with KC finishing one spot below the Wooden Spoon winning San Jose Earthquakes.
Pulido ends his time in Kansas City as the ninth highest scorer in league goals (35), MLS competitions (36) and all competitions (38). He’s tied for fifth in game winners in league play (11) and seventh in game winners in all competitions (12).
What Does this Mean for Sporting KC?
This immediately frees up a Designated Player spot on Sporting KC’s roster. The team still technically has two DPs in Nemanja Radoja and Daniel Salloi based on their 2024 salaries, but they are in the Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) range and can theoretically be bought down. That means SKC can add up to three new DPs.
All indications are they are going to follow the 2/4/2 MLS roster designation; two DPs, four U-22 initiative players and $2 million in extra General Allocation Money (GAM) to be spent anywhere across the roster.
All offseason Mike Burns and Peter Vermes have indicated the team is planning to add a DP #10 (attacking midfielder). Presumably that’s still the plan, but suddenly there is room to make another big signing as well.
It’ll also surely help the team on the field. Pulido was a black hole in 2024. He constantly lost the ball and seemingly lost his scoring touch (or at least his ability to actually get into the box to show that touch).
2024 was his worst season in a Sporting KC uniform if you don’t count missing all of 2022. He scored seven goals in nearly 2,000 minutes. In 2020, a COVID shortened season, he only scored six times, but he played nearly 1,000 less minutes. He did increase his assist output, but not nearly enough for someone who was asked to play as a second striker or attacking midfielder. Plus, his defensive work rate was horrible.
Whether it's as a #10 or #9, Pulido's numbers just didn't stack up for his nearly $3.9 million salary in 2024. Maybe he'll thrive back in Mexico at #Chivas. #SportingKC got out from under a massive weight tonight.
— Chad Smith (@chadcsmith.bsky.social) 2025-01-08T03:04:58.234Z
Unfortunately for Alan Pulido, the lows in KC will probably outweigh the highs. Expectations were through the roof and injuries seemed to derail most of the Mexican striker’s time in Kansas City. The question becomes what is next for Sporting Kansas City on their roster build. Mike Burns has shown a propensity to sell players, now he’ll need to start signing some.
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Like I said in the previous one, it’s not a good sign when the most exciting news is that we got rid of a player, but this shows that they’re somewhat serious about a restart. PV has a bad habit of keeping known players around on bad deals rather than try with an unknown player. This signals that with Burns in charge, maybe this bad pattern will be broken. No hate towards Pulido, but thank goodness he’s gone.
I’m sorry but last year just wasnt Pulido’s fault….they played him in the 10 role regularly. And when he wasn’t in the 10 role nobody could get him the ball. I’m torn on this news. He had proven he’s a stud when we had Kinda getting him the ball.
What is not captured in those FBRef.com graphs at the bottom of the post is all the lost possessions he had. I can’t count how many times he’d get the ball last year, at the 10 or the 9, and simply lose it.
We theorized throughout the year maybe he was hurt. And PV seemingly confirmed that later and said he was healthy when he that two goal game against Orlando. Then he proceeded to look like trash in his final five appearances.
The system didn’t help him, but he fell off a cliff. He looked like a shell of his former self. It’s possible he’ll be better at Chivas where the roster is far superior. But I can’t look at getting him off the books as anything but a win for SKC.
A signing that was so full of promise, and delivered when he wasn’t hurt before last year’s season. Prior to 2024 his per 90 numbers were totally justifiable. There just weren’t enough 90’s to make his salary worth it. Dude just fell straight off a cliff last year.
The thing i liked most about the original Pulido signing is it was a sign of intent. Here was a guy who was a bona fide star and we went out and got him. That felt so good. With the futility of the last few years, having him leave almost feels like the opposite. It’s still 100% the right move to sell him, but it’s just brutal to see that “statement” signing go without having another one to feel excited about.
Good luck to Alan in his move back to Mexico. At 33 years old, I can’t see him getting any better than he was last year. When your #9’s best attribute is dropping back into the midfield to “link up”, you need to find a new #9. I’m so happy SKC got some money back for him and they get to dump that ridiculous salary!
A false 9 is a very legitimate way to play.
Sure, but a False DP is not…
Honestly he reminds me of Vermes. In both cases, at their best, they produced dynamic results that had the team in the national conversation. But both were handed unjustifiable contract extensions as their results became problematic, based on some combination of stasis, loyalty, and lack of forward thinking, and the team has suffered from it.
If there’s hope going forward, it’s based on the ideas that ownership has finally woken up, Burns is a better hire than he seemed at first, and Vermes can capture some past magic with a more focused role.
So with best wishes to Pulido, I’m glad he’s gone, though I’m going to be somewhat miffed he if goes on to recapture star form with a new team, a la Ilie.
The guy was great with the correct players around him, he proved that everytime. I don’t get that aspect of everyone’s disdain lol.
Not sure where you see disdain in my comment. But I did often get the sense that Pulido was the kind of player who was elevated by those around him, rather than the kind of player who elevates those around him.
So far so good. If they weren’t going to build around Pulido anymore then a transfer was always the best outcome. I’d be thrilled with a buyout of Radoja and a European transfer of Salloi as well – transfermarkt has his value at $3m, I would take that in a heartbeat.
Those moves would allow a near complete teardown of the roster dross and make for a new SKC team that’s younger, faster, and more intense. They would also be pretty bad again unless they really nail the #10 DP signing.
Bad with hope is better than meh with apathy.
Loved having him in KC. Can’t help but feel like he would have been a lot more productive with a better playmaker or a system that fit him, especially last year. Bummer about the injuries, too.
That said, he was going to be really expensive this year on what will not be a competitive team and that money could be a lot better invested on a U23.
Hope he’s really productive with Chivas and this is the best result for all parties.