Sporting KC
BREAKING: Peter Vermes OUT as Sporting KC Manager
After over 15 seasons in charge at Sporting Kansas City, Peter Vermes is no longer in charge. It is a new day for KC soccer.
In a shocking announcement, Sporting Kansas City stated they have “mutually agreed to part ways with Manager Peter Vermes” on Monday morning.
Vermes has been the coach of Sporting KC since he took the interim title on August 4, 2009. He was originally named the Technical Director in November of 2006. At the beginning of 2024, job titles changed, and he was named the Chief Soccer Officer.
The announcement comes amidst a historically bad run for the club, dating back to September 21, 2024. Sporting KC lost to Minnesota United and started an ongoing run of 13 consecutive games without a win, including a US Open Cup final loss, two CONCACAF Champions Cup losses and nine MLS league losses. The only non-loss in this stretch was the wild 3-3 come from behind draw, also against Minnesota back on March 15th.
The move was made less than 24 hours after the KC Cauldron and South Stand called for Vermes to resign.
Effective immediately, long-time assistant coach Kerry Zavagnin has been named as Sporting KC’s interim head coach.
In the statement release by the club, Vermes said, “It would be hard to list all of the people I want to thank after 20 seasons in managerial positions at Sporting Kansas City. I am thankful to everyone, especially ownership for giving me the opportunity of being a steward of this club for the past two decades. I wish the club nothing but the best in the future.”
Peter Vermes leaves quite the legacy in Kansas City. He was perhaps the driving force in the resurrection of the team as they rebranded from the Kansas City Wizards to Sporting KC. He was instrumental in the design of the Compass Minerals National Performance Center where SKC train and of Children’s Mercy Park, KC’s soccer specific stadium. He had his hands in all things Sporting KC.
Vermes also leaves having coached his team to the 2013 MLS Cup and 2012, 2015 and 2017 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup titles. The team made the playoffs in 11 of his seasons at the helm, including eight straight trips from 2011-2018. He also played for the then Wizards and helped lead them to the 2000 MLS Cup title.
According to the team, “Vermes coached 609 matches for Sporting in all competitions, more than half of the games in the club’s 30-year existence and the most ever for a manager at one MLS club.”
Vermes was the longest tenured manager in all of Major League Soccer. That honor now falls to Brian Schmetzer of the Seattle Sounders who became his team’s interim coach on July 26, 2016, nearly seven years after Vermes got his post.
The firing of Vermes comes just six games into the 2025 MLS season and in only year two of a five-year extension he signed with the club ahead of the 2023 season.
Sporting KC are back home on Saturday when they host cross-state rivals St. Louis City SC.
The KC Soccer Journal will bring you more on this story as it develops.
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Sad, but probably necessary move. Dude was a legend who held on too long.
WOW! Didn’t think it would happen. Now the supporters groups need to write a sell the team letter…
Thank you PV for your time at the club. However, I am really looking forward to a fresh set of tactical ideas that better fit our current players. Maybe we will even see Afrifa play some?
Now that it has happened, there is a little sadness given how much Vermes has put into this team. But it just had stopped working. Whether it was his failure to adapt, or just not getting the right piece for his philosophy or what, it just wasn’t happening. We all suspect he is partially a scapegoat for ownership failings, so it would be nice if there were some changes there as well. Spring cleaning!
One thing I’ve always loved about a Vermes-lead organization is the mantra of “team first.” No one person was larger than the team. I think it’s maybe a bit of poetic justice that the guy who really had become larger than the team in a lot of ways finally fell prey to that mantra. That said, I hope they don’t lose that identity. I also hope against hope that this doesn’t kick off a coaching carousel. They need to nail the coaching decision the first time or else things will get worse before they get better, as impossible as that may seem.
Especially if ownership is only paying lip service to spending money and revamping the org.
Does anyone think that Jim Curtin would be a decent hire? I really don’t know mush about him, except he has plenty of MLS experience in Philly
I don’t know anything either, but Philly had great youth team outcomes. He was let go rather suddenly if I recall, though.
We’ve had how many years of Vermes failure years, so they just have to get it right. I don’t care about right the first time, I just care about right.
Holy Cow! Honestly what a gracious response he gave. What a crazy turn of events.
I thought he would not have been fired but I bet something in his contract states something like, “You must have such an such record by X date…or termination.”
For them to terminate a contract that was extended for 5 years or whatever it was… There had to of been something written in the clause.
Good on everyone. This is turning out to be a wild season.
I assume the ownership paid a few million to terminate the contract. Add to it the cost of a new coach, and it shows how much the ownership was ready to move forward.
Finally. Wish Reid scurried away with him.
p.s. Vermes can be a good coach for another team, just as a new coach can be good for SKC.
Whether I trust ownership to pick the proper coach is up for discussion, but I’m so happy to be having that discussion, a new discussion!
It’s about time and way past due.
no tears here.
I’m genuinely and pleasantly surprised they were willing to cut bait this early in the season and only about halfway through his new contract, but I 100% think it’s the the right move, albeit one that should have been made much sooner.
The results have been on a clear decline since 2022 and for as much success as PV brought in his tenure, it’s apparent the team has needed a fresh vision and direction for awhile. If we look at league record from present day back to 2022, we are at exactly a 50% loss rate (54 in 108 games) and only about a 30% win rate (21 in 108 games).
That’s just not good enough and the way this season has begun there were no signs of a turnaround, even with some pretty hefty spending on players in the offseason. As for PV,
there’s a shelf life for every manager, even the top ones. He enjoyed one of the longest professional coaching tenures in the world, so hopefully he doesn’t have many complaints with the outcome here, and I wish him well.
The timing seems surprising; but with the potential boycott of the STL game and the fact STL travels well (normally 40/60), I do not think the ownership wanted the embarrassment of a home game with 90% away fans.
Wasn’t sure how I’d feel if this actually happened. But the answer is no different at all. They don’t feel any closer or farther away from being competitive again. It had to happen, he had to go at this point, but it feels performative. Just like a losing team going through the motions of what a losing team does when they are losing. Do i have any hope whatsoever that some brilliant coach is going to come in and make the difference with tactics or lineup changes? Not really.
By letting him stay this offseason, unload a bunch of players, and sign new (expensive) players, it feels like we’re farther away from being competitive than we were at the beginning of the season.
Outstanding. I’m glad it’s Kerry, not Benny at interim. I don’t think anyone can succeed with this roster and I don’t want to see Benny fail.
Thanks to the supporters for finally demanding the change. I believe how long you rolled with the punches made your voice louder. I’ve been at that breaking point for 5 years, glad you arrived.
Thanks to PV for everything he brought to the club over the years. Only wish he’d of stepped down sooner.
Reminds me of Arsene Wenger.
Legendary coach that stuck around for too long.
Peter, it’s been real. No disrespect but it’s time we all break up.
Something had to give. My only desire for the club is to not end up with the spoon at the end of the season.
This is one of my biggest fears. We’re the one of the only original teams that hasn’t won the spoon and I want to keep it that way. I don’t even care about pushing for 9th, just don’t get that spoon.
Who should be the next manager/coach?
Best Available coaches: if you could pick any of them, who would you choose? https://www.transfermarkt.us/trainer/verfuegbaretrainer/statistik
I’m betting on a former MLS manager… Jim Curtin.
Had a pretty decent 10 year run with Philly, with lots of youth development, but they bailed on him quickly last year when he missed the playoffs for the first time in several years. So, I don’t know if that indicates some underlying problem or if they are just the opposite of SKC.
Agree, I would go for Vanni too. But I hear ATL offered Curtin a ton of money and he said no. So we will see.
Curtin has said he doesn’t want to move while his kids are still in school
I second David here. He was offered a bag of money to coach Atlanta United (who spend money on their roster like no one else) and he turned them down. He’s not coming to KC.
Take a hard look at Gary Smith. Has don’t nothing but make the playoffs every year building Nashville from scratch. Would be nice to see him with an established club.
I feel like he is sort of a boring coach. Steady, but boring. I’d rather lose 3-4 than 0-1.
Best of luck Peter. Thank you for the great memories you gave us – it was awesome to have a great run of success you provided.
Sad. But long past overdue. Thank you for your services. But all good things come to an end.
Finally, a possible resurgence of this franchise!
David Gass said it well on SoccerWise, he wasn’t able to achieve the incredibly high standards that he himself set in the early years of his coaching. My immediate reaction was excitement that we finally made the right decision, but it is hard to see him go. He has meant so much to this club. I just wish he could’ve left a hero rather than a bit of a villain. I wish him all the best and I hope to God ownership does not think this is enough of a change. There’s a lot more pain that will come through this rebuild, but they have a chance to redo things and make it right. And there’s no more scapegoats for them to point fingers at. We are all watching…
Does anyone know if/when there is a press conference scheduled? Thanks!
Noon on Tuesday. Mike Illig.
IDEA.
Bayern sues the Canadian Soccer Federation and they have to let Marsch go. Marsch comes to Sporting and everyone is happy.
Not sure how but I just heard about this just now. Feel bad for him, but it had to happen. Excited to see what happens next.
I’m not sure either. We need you to come to the site at least once a day 🙂
I hope the ownership takes their time and doesn’t get into a hurry. We are approaching summer when the rest of the world will be making changes. Whoever they pick I hope it will be a good fit. In the meantime, I like things the way they are let KZ handle it.