Sporting KC
Sporting Nearing Deal for Two Additions

Sporting Kansas City is reportedly closing in on two new signings for the club. According to Tom Bogert, Sporting is closing in on signing the previously reported Manu Garcia as well as his teammate with Aris, Shapi Suleymanov. The deal for the two players is reportedly in the region of $5 million. After today’s preseason game against the Chicago Fire when asked about signings, Peter Vermes said “I wish I could give you guys confirmation. There’s some things that are very close… everyone is working to try to get deals done.” Vermes continued, saying that we should be hearing about them in the next couple of days.
The prior reported Garcia, a Spanish midfielder, looks to be the “10” that Kansas City has made a priority this offseason to acquire. The 27-year-old has made eighteen appearances for Aris this season, recording four goals and two assists in 1,400 minutes for the club.
The new name to the deal is Russian winger, Shapi Suleymanov (full name: Magomed-Shapi Kamilyevich Suleymanov). Suleymanov joined Aris on a permanent transfer deal this past summer from Russian club FC Krasnodar after spending the 2023-2024 season on loan at the Greek club. Over his year and a half now in Greece, Suleymanov has appeared in fifty-one games across all competitions, recording seven goals and adding five assists.
Aris was the third stop in three years on loan from Krasnodar after loan spells in Turkey with Giresunspor in the 2021-2022 season and Israel with Hapoel Be’er Sheva in the 2022-2023 season. Prior to that he’d been a regular contributor for Krasnodar, where he’d come up through the club’s academy. He was regularly appearing for them in their Champions League and Europa League games.
Suleymanov has predominately played as a right winger in his career, but has spent time in most offensive positions at times throughout his career and based on highlights appears to be able to hit a decent free kick.
Suleymanov has found himself in trouble in recent history, twice getting lengthy suspensions. The first came in May of 2023 as the result of actions in a players riot during his time with Hapeol Be’er Sheva. He got a ten game suspension after actions at the end of Hapeol’s 2-1 win over rival, and league champions, Maccabi Haifa. The ten game suspension was the largest for a player from his team and the second largest overall in the incident. The second was a five game suspension at the end of the 2024 season because of his actions towards the referee after the final whistle in Aris’s 1-0 loss to Panathinaikos on a last second goal in the final of the Greek Cup.
The pair of players would help to fill holes currently on Kansas City’s roster that currently sits at twenty-one a few weeks ahead of the season opener against Inter Miami in the CONCACAF Champions Cup on February 18th.
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