Sporting KC Sign 21-year-old Brazilian CB Diego Borges

On Tuesday, Sporting Kansas City announced yet another addition to their 2026 MLS roster. The club acquired center back Diego Borges from Zalaegerszeg TE (ZTE) in Hungary for an undisclosed transfer fee. The rumored fee is €1.75 million ($2.01m USD) per Ben Jacobs of Give Me Sport.

Borges is signed to a four-and-a-half-year deal through the 2029-30 season with an option for the 2030-31 season. He will occupy an international roster spot, but according to the KC Star’s Daniel Sperry, he already has his P-1 visa and is available immediately.

“We are delighted that Diego has decided to join Sporting KC for the next stage of his career,” President of Soccer Operations & General Manager David Lee said. “Diego is a young and exciting prospect at center back who has experienced a quick rise from Serie B in Brazil to showing excellent performances in Hungary. Diego has many attributes that made him a coveted target for a number of teams around the world with his size, athleticism and quality on the ball. The U22 Initiative allows us to compete for players of this profile, and our role now is to help him continue to develop his potential and contribute to our success.”

Borges spent a limited amount of time in Hungary, only arriving six months ago. Prior to that, he was with Brazilian superclub Santos FC after joining them in 2023. Prior to that, he was in the youth academies of Ferroviaria and Falcon.

Budgetary Fit

Diego is just 21 years old, so his transfer fee won’t count against the salary budget for Sporting KC because he would be a U22 Initiative player. Teams are able to spend an unlimited amount of money on his transfer fee, as long as his salary is below the max budget charge ($803,125 in 2026). That means he’ll only hit the cap at $200,000, leave plenty of room for further additions. 

Borges will occupy one of four U22 Initiative spots Sporting KC has available and he’s the first player to fill a spot since the departure of Robert Voloder and Logan Ndenbe last offseason. The team can either add two or three more. If they only add two, then they can add another Designated Player. DPs can have an unlimited salary and unlimited transfer fee. Dejan Joveljic and Manu Garcia currently occupy those spots.

The team also gets significantly more team control than SKC had with their prior U22 signings (Marinos Tzionis included) by adding extra length to the contract. That gives them more time for Borges to develop and either contribute or be sold on for a significant fee.

With Borges taking up an international roster spot, Sporting KC have just one remaining. The internationals on the roster are Zorhan Bassong, Shapi Suleymanov, Kwaku Agyabeng, Lasse Berg Johnsen, Or Blorian and the other most recent signing, Capita Capemba. David Lee told the KC Soccer Journal that additional international roster spots were going for $400-500k in General Allocation Money (GAM) at media day a few weeks ago. Luckly, Sporting KC have the most available GAM in the league.

Here is it most to least. #MLS

— Chad Smith (@chadcsmith.bsky.social) 2026-03-06T20:14:20.555Z

SKC could also free up an international spot if a player gets their green card. Bassong has been on the team for three seasons and is on the Canadian National Team, which is probably the clearest path to freeing up a spot.

Roster Fit

The addition of Borges brings the center back room up to six players once new signing Or Blorian joins in the summer. Despite having six guys, it’s an inexperienced room. Offseason addition Ethan Bartlow is the veteran (until Blorian arrives) as he enters his sixth season in MLS and has 83 appearances in league play.

Beyond that, no one has more than one year of professional experience playing first division football. Ian James (17), Wyatt Meyer (24) and Jansen Miller (24) are all in their second pro seasons. At 26, Blorian and Bartlow are the “veterans” of the group and have extensive experience compared to their teammates.

One trait Borges adds is it’s reported that he’s left-footed. It’s not a requirement to be left-footed to play left center back, but Meyer is the only left-footed player right now and he’s started every game this season. Last time out, Sporting KC used left back Jayden Reid as a sort of elbow back in their back three formation, so that’s another option as well.

Borges is available to play Saturday when Sporting KC host the Colorado Rapids.