Trying to Set a Sporting KC Depth Chart

The Major League Soccer season starts for Sporting Kansas City in just 16 days. Usually, long before this point in the offseason, I’ve written a “way too early” depth chart. For the 2024 season, that was on December 29, 2023 and for the 2025 season, that was on January 10, 2025.

Here we are on February 5th and it feels like an impossible task. I can’t imagine how new coach Raphael Wicky feels. Sporting KC have just 20 players signed to their roster. Almost certainly, only eight of them are making more than minimum salaries.

We can’t know for sure, but this week’s signings of Wyatt Meyer and Jayden Reid scream MLS minimum contracts. Both players were on the fringes of the Nashville SC and St Louis City rosters last year and were free agents deep into preseason. Maybe they’ve leveraged that into better wages, but it’s hard to see another team in MLS that they could be starters on, and they absolutely are going to get significant minutes for Sporting KC, based on who is on the roster today.

Who on SKC Starts on Other Teams?

When you look up and down the Sporting KC roster, you can see a lot of young guys with potential and depth. What you don’t see is a lot of guys who would start on other teams around the league.

The only write-it-in-pen starter on this team, that would also start on most other teams, is Dejan Joveljic. The Serbian striker put up 18 goals last year and would be an improvement for most teams at striker.

Beyond Dejan, Manu Garcia and Daniel Salloi would definitely start for a good chunk of teams. Jake Davis probably has the case to be a starter on a smaller percentage of teams. Then maybe John Pulskamp on a few?

If we are being generous, that means this team has five starting quality players. At least based on where we left this team last year. It’s possible some of the young guys like Ian James or Jacob Bartlett have taken big leaps in the offseason. Zorhan Bassong is probably a spot starter around the league. Jansen Miller is only entering his second season, he could be set for a big jump.

But mostly what this team has is depth and not a lot of high-end talent. They have an immense amount of salary budget space to spend heavily on guys who should be competing to start all over the field. The deals just keep not materializing.

The Moves Keep Falling Through, but Sporting KC have a Ton to Spend

Anyways, enough delays, let’s look at a position-by-position breakdown of this roster.

Depth Chart

We don’t know what formation Sporting KC are going to play, but their lineups in preseason have been indicative of a 4-3-3 or a 4-2-3-1. Without tape, it’s impossible to know for sure. We’ll assume it’s one of those two for now until we can see the team play a game this Saturday.

Goalkeeper

Starter: John Pulskamp

Depth: Stefan Cleveland, Ryan Schewe, Jack Kortkamp

While goalkeeper is the deepest position on the roster, both Pulskamp and Cleveland are looking to prove they are MLS level starters. John started every game in 2025, but Cleveland was brought in as competition for the young net minder. If preseason is any indication, it’s Pulskamp’s job to lose.

However, if Sporting KC want to play out of the back, as President of Soccer Operations David Lee and new coach Wicky indicate, Cleveland has an opening for this job. SKC played the ball long more than any team in MLS last year, in part because going short is a weakness in John’s game. We’ll see if the 24-year-old GK has taken a leap there this offseason.

Right Back

Starter: Justin Reynolds?

Depth: Jake Davis???

The cupboard is bare at right back. When Sporting KC traded for Reynolds from the Chicago Fire, it gave the team one official RB on the roster. In 2025, Reynolds had a single start and only four appearances. Jake Davis has significantly more experience at RB, but he’s played all his preseason minutes in the midfield and that’s unquestionably his best spot. Maybe Davis will end up as the starter, but this is one of many spots Sporting KC absolutely need to sign another player of starting quality.

Center Back

Starters: Jansen Miller, Ian James

Depth: Wyatt Meyer, Jacob Bartlett*, Cielo Tschantret*, ???

Technically, the team only has three signed center backs, as Bartlett and Cielo are midfielders by trade. An argument could be made that Bartlett would be better served playing CB, but he’s yet to lineup there in preseason. Hopefully James and Miller will have made huge strides in the offseason, but a team should probably have at least five center backs on the roster.

In Meyers lone season in MLS, he started three games and made six appearances overall (235 minutes). James, the presumed starter right now, had five starts, eight appearances and 490 minutes. Things are precariously thin at CB, as they basically are all over the roster.

Left Back

Starter: Zorhan Bassong

Depth: Jayden Reid, ???

So far, former trialist and the newly signed Reid is the only guy to start at left back in the preseason. He’s the only official left back on the roster. Sporting KC lists Bassong as a midfielder, but he was signed as a left back when he joined the club ahead of the 2024 season. At that time, he was buried behind Logan Ndenbe and Tim Leibold, who are both gone.

Bassong was away with Canada to start preseason and then didn’t play once he returned. Maybe he’ll actually pop-up as a starter in the midfield next to Jake Davis, or perhaps the team needs him more in defense. The newly signed Reid has 12 starts over three MLS seasons (all in the last two years with St. Louis). He has a total of 21 appearances and 1,181 minutes in that time. He may be the starter, but based on past performance, he probably shouldn’t be.

Another potential signing is the second of Sporting KC’s two first round picks, Nikos Clarke-Tosczak. That said, he was a surprise omission from SKC’s preseason roster for phase two.

Double Pivot Midfielders

Starters: Jake Davis, Jacob Bartlett?

Depth: Zorhan Bassong, Kwaku Agyabeng, Cielo Tschantret, ???

To be fair, we don’t know if Sporting KC are playing with a double pivot or if they are going with a lone defensive midfielder (#6) and a more advanced box-to-box (#8) midfielder. The way the PR team has listed the lineups pushes me towards the former, but if it’s a single pivot, just drop Barlett deeper.

In 2025, Bartlett struggled in a double pivot though, so perhaps I have this all wrong.

In a true double pivot, unless Bartlett has made strides, Davis next to Bassong or Agyabeng probably makes the most sense based on the limited knowledge we have of those players in that setup. Both Bartlett and Cielo have excelled more as a lone d-mid.

Regardless, Davis needs help as he’s the only starter of this bunch I’m currently confident can carry the load. And he’s had his struggles, so two signings could completely re-shape this section of the depth chart.

Attacking Midfielder

Starter: Manu Garcia

Depth: ???

Manu Garcia is one of two Designated Players on this roster. I’m not even convinced that Manu’s best position is as an attacking midfielder, though he’s far and away the most creative attacker on the pitch. His propensity is to want to turn and carry the ball from deeper. Ultimately, it might suit him better to play deeper next to an absolute stud of a defensive midfielder. But this team doesn’t have that, so Manu is the man and he needs to be closer to goal. The question is who gets the ball from deep to him if he’s not carrying it.

As far as a backup, there are no clear choices. Jake Davis has shown more attacking creativity in recent years and in a pinch could probably handle that. But it’s less than ideal. New signing Zamir Loyo Reynaga would probably be up next, but he’s on a deal that keeps him with SKC II for a year before promoting him to the senior team. Then again, teams can do loans from their MLS Next Pro team in a pinch based on last year’s MLS roster rule (the 2026 rules aren’t yet out).

If a loan from SKC II is in the cards, Zamir could play, Johann Ortiz is another option. Whatever happens, this is another spot that absolutely needs an addition.

Right Wing

Starter: Calvin Harris

Depth: Shapi Suleymanov, the left wingers below

This might be the only spot on the roster where there is true competition to start. Shapi played a majority of the right winger minutes in 2025, but his two goals and four assists in over 2,000 minutes leaves plenty of room for improvement. Enter Calvin Harris.

The only signing by Sporting KC in the month of January looked like depth at first glance. But in just over 1,300 minutes he put in five goals and three assists for the Colorado Rapids last year. In just his second preseason game (I know, too much weight on meaningless games), he started over Shapi. He adds a new dimension with his speed and could help a Sporting KC team that may be fighting for its life at times to get out of their own end of the pitch.

Shapi will surely get a chunk of starter minutes, but Harris may have an inside trade to the starting job. Despite that, nothing either guy has shown proves they are a regular MLS starter. Maybe, in their mid 20s, they’ll take an unlikely leap.

Center Forward

Starter: Dejan Joveljic

Depth: ???, Afrifa

Joveljic is the other DP on this roster and is a definite starter. The problem is who plays if he’s not available. With the lack of attacking midfielder options, you probably don’t want Manu Garcia in a false 9 role. Daniel Salloi is probably the next guy with the closest set of skills to play that spot. Or perhaps SKC flip into a 4-4-2 and play extra midfielders since it’s the deepest part of their roster and simply pinch the wingers in or play Manu and Salloi together.

Stephen Afrifa did play CF in college at FIU, but he seems to have fully converted to a winger. With the lack of bodies, he may need to fill in here at times.

The options are less than ideal, and Sporting KC absolutely need to sign another CF to avoid running Dejan into the ground. That said, “Sporting KC absolutely need to sign [insert most positions here]” could basically be the title of this article.

Left Wing

Starter: Daniel Salloi

Depth: Stephen Afrifa, all the right wingers above

In 2024, in limited minutes, Afrifa’s offensive stats actually were better than Salloi’s on a per minute basis. Then he barely got on the field in 2025. Salloi’s consistency in recent years should give him the upper hand at this spot, but Afrifa is seemingly going to be due a lot more minutes and chances in 2026.

If this depth chart was more like what Ben Wright does at Six One Five Soccer, it’s possible Sporting KC would only have a few starters listed and a bunch of question marks in the starter spots with the guys actually on the roster listed as backups. Until the signings start coming through the door though, this is probably where Sporting KC are right now.