Major League Soccer
Sporting KC signs defender Jansen Miller
Sporting KC sign first round SuperDraft pick Jansen Miller. The center back is signed for the 2025 season with club options through 2028.
Sporting Kansas City announced Thursday afternoon that they have signed defender Jansen Miller. Miller was the 8th overall pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft held in December 2024. Sporting has signed the 23-year-old defender to a contract through the 2025 season with club options for 2026, 2027 and 2028.
The signing of the center back was announced just days before the beginning of the 2025 season. Sporting Kansas City is set to play the first leg of the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup tournament against Inter Miami on Tuesday, February 18 at 7:00pm CT at Children’s Mercy Park.
Miller logged minutes in all six of Sporting’s preseason matches played in both Florida and at the Coachella Invitational in California, including three starts. The minutes for both of Sporting’s presumed starting center backs, Dany Rosero and Joaquin Fernandez, were extremely limited in preseason action. Coach Peter Vermes has confirmed that both first string players are currently injured, with Rosero coming back from surgery and Fernandez struggling with a minor injury of some kind.
Rosero has appeared in the last two preseason games in a limited role, but Fernandez has been out for a few weeks. It can therefore be assumed that fans will see Jansen Miller pick up minutes for Sporting KC right out the gate in the 2025 season. With Inter Miami and their star-studded lineup of proven goal scorers coming to town, Miller will have the opportunity to quickly show fans what he can do.
College Career
Miller joined Sporting after playing four seasons of college soccer. He began his college career at Xavier University in 2021 before transferring to Indiana University and playing the 2022-2024 seasons. Between the two schools, Miller played in 77 matches starting in 66 of those. He was selected as a 2nd team All-Big Ten player last fall.
In addition to his college career, Miller has also logged minutes for a few USL League 2 teams. He played for Saint Louis Scott Gallagher in 2021. He joined the Long Island Rough Riders in 2023 and the Ocean City Nor’easters in 2024.
Youth Information
The St. Louis, Missouri native attended Parkway West High School and played for Saint Louis FC in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy.
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The fact that Shelton spent so much time at centerback in the preseason makes me think they are worried that Rosero and Fernandez will miss a chunk of time. Voloder and Miller played the most minutes of anyone this preseason. I don’t think that’s just them “trying stuff.”
That makes me nervous that we’re going to waste more of Jake Davis’s time at right back as well. He was the only bright spot in the midfield last year and seriously regressed at right back. He belongs in the midfield, finding chemistry with Garcia.
No shade towards Miller, but this signing concerns me. Not because Miller is a bad player, but because it’s probably to fill depth since Rosero and Fernandez are out on injuries. It’s not a new thing, but it seriously sucks when we sign high dollar players that end up not playing because they’re injured. I’m very excited about what’s happened in the midfield and forward lines, but this defense is still shaky as hell and this just confirms that it won’t be getting better. We’re going to need a lot of goals to make this work!
Not the exact right place to put this, but ESPN just popped with their seasonal MLS kit review. This is the verbiage for SKC (which came in at 25):
SKC have returned to stripes for a fifth straight season, this time with thicker stripes than last season’s kit, but still not quite going full hoops. The template hurts the shirt with the awkward way the hoops cut off toward the bottom, but at least they are sticking with stripes as they try to establish a visual identity for a club whose brand and culture is mostly forgettable at this point.
Ouch!