Sporting KC Chasing New York City FC DP Fernandez

In his media availability earlier this week, Sporting KC President of Soccer Operations, David Lee stated that the club was still looking to make moves to add players in the summer transfer window. He specifically said that that club was chasing a number 10 to play for the club. Tonight, rumors are starting to slip out about who Sporting is/was potentially chasing for the number 10 position. And it’s a player David Lee is very familiar with.

According to reports from Cesar Merlo, Sporting made a $23 million bid with $2 million in add-ons for New York City FC’s DP midfield Nicolas Fernandez Mercau. A bid that was accepted by the team, but not the player. Nico “not yet reached a contractual agreement with Kansas City.”

In 19 games this season for NYCFC, all starts, the Argentine midfielder has scored 13 goals and added five assists for the club. Fernandez was signed by Lee to NYCFC in July of last year from Spanish side, Elche FC to a DP contract through 2029. Since that time he’s been a major part of NYCFC’s team with 18 goals and nine assists in 38 games across all competitions.

Fernandez is rumored to be a guy that Lee specifically was very high on signing for NYCFC when he was at the club, pushing City Football Group to bring the midfielder in. So Lee continuing to have an affinity for the player and working to bring him in isn’t the biggest surprise.

The reports of Kansas City’s interest and bid took a bit of a hit when Tom Bogert reported that Kansas City had made a bid to acquire Fernandez from NYCFC but that talks for KC to acquire the midfielder were not active.

It nothing else, the interest in Fernandez shows that Sporting is still active in the transfer window and hasn’t stopped trying to improve the team before the window closes to finish the 2026 season and head into the 2027 sprint season in a much better position than they started this season. Will it involve Sporting paying a cashfer to acquire Fernandez? That remains to be seen, but the club is obviously still active as the summer window moves towards its closer.