Sporting KC
Meet Jan Jurcec, Sporting KC Trialist
Sporting Kansas City absolutely have a need to add a right back to their 2025 roster. Is Jan Jurcec the guy to fill that role?

Sporting Kansas City have just entered their second, and final, phase of preseason ahead of the 2025 MLS season and 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup. As a part of preseason, Sporting KC often bring players on trial. Usually, those spots are mostly made up of SKC Academy players and a few SuperDraft picks.
Sometimes though, there are players outside of those two categories trying to make the roster. Last year, Memo Rodriguez was on trial and quickly signed to a first team deal. He was one of the better surprises of the 2024 Sporting KC season.
This year, Croatian defender Jan Jurcec could be that guy.
Jurcec has survived the first cut down of trialists to make it to phase two, unlike a few players who are now on trial with SKC II. The 24-year-old comes to Kansas City after spending most of his career in his native Croatia. He got his start at NK Lokomotiva’s youth club before moving to NK Kustosija’s youth setup. He advanced through the ranks to make it to the professional level and was there until the summer of 2022. He’s spent the last two seasons with SCR Altach in the Austrian first division.
He’s also gotten four caps for the Croatia U-21 national team.
In his professional career, he’s already made 131 appearances, scored 14 goals and added 10 assists. He’s done that from a variety of positions along the right side of the field. He’s spent time mostly at right-midfielder/right-wingback but also has extensive time at right back as well as right wing.
If he makes the Sporting KC roster, it’ll be at right back. Check out his highlights showing him mostly at fullback/wingback. Most of the highlights are on the right, but he shows up on the left at times as well.
How is Jan Doing in Preseason?
With games behind closed doors, it’s tough to know, but the fact that he’s still with the team is a positive sign. The media also had a chance to talk to Peter Vermes about Jurcec and he said he was “impressed” with his performance so far.
As for where he’s played, it appears to be right back based on the lineups released by the team on social media. We’ll have a better idea on Wednesday when Jurcec may take the field against New York City FC in a game streamed for free for all to watch.
Roster Fit
Sporting KC have definite need at the right back position. The only right back on the roster is the recently converted Khiry Shelton. He has less appearances on the backline than fellow convert Jake Davis, but Davis seems like he’ll be needed in the midfield this year. The team has listed Davis in the midfield and Shelton as a defender in all their roster announcements.
If Jurcec were to sign, even at 24 he’s immediately the most experienced defender vying for that spot. It looks like he was playing in a back five at times though, so converting to a fullback in a back four could take time too. If he makes the roster.
How he handles phase two of preseason will likely go a long way towards that. The team definitely needs to add a right back or a starting caliber midfielder if they are planning to pull Davis into the back line again. Davis played right back for a half in the last preseason game, but that likely had more to do with a lack of available center backs (where Khiry played).
Sporting KC currently have six open roster spots after their spending spree this week where they added three players, including two new Designated Players in Manu Garcia and Dejan Joveljic, and spent a rumored $9 million.
There is clearly room to add Jurcec, as well as potentially fellow trialist Sebastian Cruz and draft pick Jansen Miller. One potential hang up could be the use of an international roster spot on Jurcec. It seems Joveljic will not occupy an international spot, despite doing so last year for the LA Galaxy. His press release made no mention of it, while the releases for Garcia and Suleymanov did.
That would leave the team with one open slot. However, it’s hard to know if any of the five players from last season (Leibold, Agada, Bassong, Vargas or Fernandez) got green cards and won’t count. Agada has been on the team for 2.5 years, Leibold two, with everyone else only entering their second season. It’s plausible some green cards have been picked up.
If there truly is only one international spot left, using it on a player who may not be a starter, might not be wise.
We’ll see on Wednesday if Jurcec keeps making the case to earn a contract this preseason.
Thanks for posting this.