Sporting KC
Sporting KC Releases Honduran Forward Alenis Vargas
In a surprise move on Friday night, Sporting Kansas City parted ways with promising 21-year-old winger Alenis Vargas.
On the eve of the 2025 Major League Soccer season, Sporting Kansas City snuck in a Friday night news dump. The team announced they had waived forward Alenis Vargas.
The 21-year-old Honduran forward signed a first team contract ahead of the 2024 season and made 20 appearances (eight starts) last season for 625 minutes in league play. He scored two goals and added an assist. Prior to coming to the first team, Vargas played for SKC II in 2023 and had six goals and seven assists in a breakout campaign.
Vargas is a fascinating story. Tales emerged of him taking up soccer at just 16-years-old. He joined Sporting KC II on loan in 2023 as a 19-year-old from Costa Rican side, Futbol Consultants Desamparados. After a standout season, he earned a first team deal. He was signed to a three-year deal through 2026 with an option for 2027.
On Friday night, his tenure with the team came to a surprise end.
The move comes just hours after Sporting KC released their roster composition for the 2025 season, which included Vargas. The team elected to go with the two Designated Player and four U-22 Initiative model. The Vargas release will have no impact on that.
Vargas traveled with the team to preseason in both Florida and California where he primarily played with guys who are further down the depth chart. He played 14 minutes in the team’s final preseason game after being suddenly subbed out from the 6-0 loss in the game prior against Minnesota United.
Roster Ramifications
Vargas was on the supplemental roster, so this will free up a minimum salary roster spot. The team now only has 25 players signed for the season. More importantly, he was occupying an international roster spot. The team will now have two spots open after it was announced earlier today Tim Leibold obtained his green card.
Because he was on the supplemental roster, his salary didn’t hit the budget, and the team will see no salary cap relief. By all accounts, they have plenty of room to make additional moves.
Analysis of the Move
The move comes as a surprise, but Vargas appeared a bit buried on the depth chart. Daniel Salloi and Erik Thommy were the starting wingers in the 1-0 loss to Inter Miami on Wednesday. Stephen Afrifa subbed in off the bench for Salloi. The team also recently added Russian winger Shapi Suleymanov on a Targeted Allocation Money contract. That likely left Vargas as the 5th option at winger.
The reasons for the departure could be many things. It could be as simple as getting back his international spot since he was unlikely to see the field often. Perhaps he wanted to go somewhere that he could see the field. Sporting Director Mike Burns told the KC Soccer Journal on media day that he was looking to add attacking talent via the U-22 Initiative. Perhaps that played a role as well.
In a post from Alenis Vargas on Instagram, the translation reads as more of a goodbye to the second team. It begins, “from everyone in the second team,” before giving thanks. And references “new challenges.”
Vargas looked like one for the future. He had an incredible amount of pace. In preseason he drew two penalty kicks. In 2024, he famously subbed in against the Seattle Sounders and immediately drew a second yellow card giving KC a man advantage. A move that would allow the team to break a 10-game winless streak. The win prior, he scored against Toronto FC.
His defensive work rate had left something to be desired at times and perhaps that, along with his place on the depth chart and the important occupation of an international roster spot tipped the scales for a move.
Follow our Across State Lines updates to find out where Vargas lands next.
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Yeah just doesn’t make sense. He must have gotten sideways with the team. Even if he wanted to play elsewhere (which why wouldn’t he?) seems like we’d not let him walk this way. Hope he lands somewhere good. He was fun to watch.
This feels like it needs context we probably won’t get. I wish him well and I just hope he doesn’t pop up as a star on RSL or something.
I do. Our side is not going in the right direction so anything that embarrasses Vermes and the owners is really good. I would love to see him captain his national side.
Bruh, you’re just relentlessly negative. It’s exhausting. The club just said they’re doing a full rebuild. We brought in Joveljic and Garcia. Garcia’s early minutes against Miami looked super promising. Why continue to just shit on Vermes and ownership?
I think the headline says it all, he was probably let go to free up an international spot. Not sure if they’re still interested in Jurcec after signing Brody, but I would be willing to bet they didn’t want to spend their last international spot on Jurcec so they could still sign a U22 player in the summer.
I’m not happy with this one, but it doesn’t take away from the other good moves they’ve made this off season. Hopefully he gets to play somewhere else, but not in MLS. We don’t need any more speed coming down our flanks.
Good article. It seems he was too good to play here.
Out of left field for sure… not disappointed just a bit of a surprise
He is fast but his quality maybe isn’t there. I’d love to see him land in the USL. I think he would do well on a in that league.
Maybe I’m one that just didn’t see his quality I guess? Yes, he was fast but not really much else? The little that we saw him in preseason it didn’t look like he improved at all. If he couldnt run at the ball passed in front of him he was essentially a non factor. Idk I dont hate the move, simply because out of bassong and him we are thinner in the midfield. I’m sure this was for an international spot.
He was super raw, no doubt about it. But are they going to go spend a transfer fee on a U-22 that is also raw in the attack? And almost assuredly has a higher salary?
I’m going to reserve judgement because Burns hasn’t signed a U-22 and I wonder how much Vermes was involved in the scouting of Tzionis, Ndenbe and Voloder. Blame Bliss?
I just don’t get the urgency to move on just to free an international spot. They could do that at any moment. Maybe signings are coming. But it feels like something else is going on with Vargas specifically, though I have no inside knowledge.
This doesn’t actually surprise me. After the last couple Burns interviews where he was talking about not being able to sign Jurec and shopping the market for international slots, my son and I both wondered if Burns was thinking about cutting Vargas for the international slot.
I’m hoping that he has something in the works and needed the slot quickly. Honestly, I’d rather take a flyer on a U22 player that has a higher potential. Vargas was fast but that was it. In MLS, speed can help, but a solid MLS FB will mostly position himself to negate that speed…or recover well enough so that Vargas lack of skill with the ball negated any positivity that his speed created. 2 goals and an assist in 645 minutes is decent, but not noteworthy. That is a goal contribution every 2.4 games. Not good enough to pass on a flyer on getting someone better. I think this is a smart move.
I agree with you, but using that logic. Guess who is slow af, wears a number 10 and occupies the starting spot? Commanding a salary north of a million. Vargas had 4 less shots on target than Dan in 1400 less minutes. Salloi scored 3 goals in 2200 minutes last year. Sucks on the ball. Can’t win a one on one. I guess i just watch a different team than everyone else.
Speed is more valuable than pure skill in mls. He’d be eaten alive in Europe, but not here. You’re not getting a chance to run at players like memo Rodriguez in Europe. I never thought Peterson was great, but he was as a super sub. Dude was 3 steps faster than everyone after the 80th min. This is what I saw from Vargas, same role. He’d put up better stats than Dan if he were the starter.
We just need to finish the roster build. I think this move got me excited for the Russian winger we haven’t seen. Maybe he can actually press.
This could be exactly why he wasn’t happy in the side. Salloi has done nothing in the last three years to make him a written in pen starter. Also, him wearing the number 10 is so lame.
Everyone was bad last year. Everyone. That’s why we finished so low.
2023 – 3rd on the team in goals
2022 – 2nd on the team in goals
2021- 1st on the team in goals.
Yea. He’s done nothing.
Speed isn’t more valuable than pure skill in MLS. It’s a physical league but you have to have some sort of skill. Vargas can still develop that, but right now he’s just a speed merchant.
Agreed. Would rather see a dangerous, raw player than Salloi playing cautiously every game.
Just found out about this. I am dumbfounded… Vargas has a lot of promise. This move is very frustrating.