Sporting KC
Rumor: Sporting KC’s Kayden Pierre to Belgian Club Genk
Could Sporting KC be on the verge of selling their Homegrown right back to Belgian club Genk this summer? More on KP.
The secondary transfer window in Major League Soccer has closed. That doesn’t mean teams have to be done making moves. The primary transfer window remains open for many leagues around the world, one of which is the Belgian Pro League.
According to the very respectable journalist, Fabrizio Romano, K.R.C. Genk are interested in Sporting Kansas City right back Kayden Pierre.
🚨🔵 Excl: Genk are closing in on deal to sign MLS talent Kayden Pierre from Kansas City.
21 year old fullback set to leave MLS for new chapter in Europe soon. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/kDPrX8Qt3p
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 22, 2024
If you aren’t familiar with Romano, or Fabs as he’s often called, he is the preeminent soccer rumor guy around the world. If you know Tom Bogert and how in depth he has with all things MLS, think that but for most of Europe and even other parts of the world. I imagine the guy doesn’t sleep.
That said, all rumors should be taken with a grain of salt until they are official. Even Fabs gets some things wrong. But this isn’t some disconnected journalist who just takes rumors fed to them by agents and floats out the idea in a haphazard Tweet.
Back to Pierre.
About Kayden Pierre
Credit: Thad Bell
If you are coming here because you are a commentor on Romano’s Tweet and you have no idea what you are talking about, let us fill you in on Pierre a little bit.
Pierre came up in the SKC Academy after moving to Kansas City from Michigan back in 2018. He played at the U-15, U-17 and U-19 levels before signing a Homegrown deal with Sporting KC in 2021.
The right-footer has mostly played with Sporting KC II since signing but has gained some valuable first team experience. In regular season play he’s appeared 25 times for the first team (16 starts) for 1,412 minutes. In the USL Championship for SKC II he’s appeared 32 times (28 starts) for 2,558 minutes. Those stats are via FBref, which seemingly left out loan appearances with SKC IIÂ after he signed his first team deal, so he’s actually got even more experience in MLS Next Pro.
As a player, his speed and dribbling really stand out. He can beat most players for pace and that also helps with recovery speed getting back to his right back role in Sporting KC’s back four. He can beat opposing defenders to the endline to send in crosses (and has appeared at winger in a pinch) but he’s at his best when he’s cutting inside as an inverted fullback.
Injuries have been an issue at times, and it’s felt like he’s been snakebit at times. In 2023, he’d have had a golden opportunity to take over the right back job but ironically badly hurt his hamstring in garbage time in a mere five road minute appearance against FC Dallas. That injury was so bad he never played for the first team again last year.
Even this year, manager Peter Vermes has been cautious with him and given him extra rest off of minor injuries to avoid them dragging on all year. In recent weeks with Jake Davis either needed in the midfield or gone for the Olympics, he’s had a chance to play a lot and has shown well for the most part.
What Does this Mean for Sporting KC?
Sporting KC haven’t sold a player in a long time. Sure, Marinos Tzionis left on a transfer this year, but from everything I’ve heard it was a free transfer with a sell on percentage. Transfermarkt still has a question mark next to his sale to FK Cukaricki.
The last substantial move by Sporting KC is the sale of Gianluca Busio to Venezia back in 2021.
It would be a small step in the right direction to see SKC selling their youth talent they develop. Speaking of Transfermarkt, they put Pierre’s value at €800,000. There has been no rumor on the dollar amount of the rumored Genk deal as of yet. A fee in this region or slightly higher plus a sell-on feels about right.
As far as what it means for the team if Pierre were to leave, there are options. On the first team Jake Davis has played the majority of the minutes at right back. Pierre is second and Khiry Shelton is third. That leaves the team with two players that can surely get them through the rest of 2024.
Beyond that, there are other options. On SKC II they’ve had quite a few guys that play right back. Nati Clarke has done very well but has been out with an injury since June. It’s possible he’ll return before the 2024 season is over. He’s still just 19 and turns 20 in January.
Another option is Ian James. He just turned 16 in June and is primarily a center back, but SKC II coach Benny Feilhaber has been using him at right back off and on. Long-term I think he projects more as a center back. The team lists him at 6’2, but I think he may be growing because I felt small standing next to him and I’m 6’2.
Then there is Leo Christiano. He’s 17 (18 in March) and has played a decent amount of center back for SKC II. However, he strikes me more as a fullback and has spent time at both fullback spots with the IIs.
All three seem like possible Homegrown options the team could use if they want to keep going with inexpensive options that have high upsides.
What Sporting KC are Saying?
Not much. Kayden Pierre wasn’t on the field for the open portion of practice available to the media today. When asked directly about the rumor, Manager Peter Vermes said he can’t say anything at this time.
PV said there is nothing he can say about KP at this time #sportingkc
— Thad (@TheBackpost) August 22, 2024
Update 8/25/2024: Vermes confirmed this past Thursday on The Program that Pierre was being transferred to Genk for a transfer fee of an undisclosed amount.
Vermes: "In these next couple windows, we're going to be very, very active."
He also confirmed a transfer fee is coming back for Kayden Pierre (selling him to Genk), but he didn't give an indication of how much. #SportingKC
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) August 25, 2024
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Would they notice if we sent them Shelton and kept Pierre?
As much as I love the potential of Pierre I think it’s important for SKC to keep selling young guys to Europe, if nothing else to prove that they can. Very few players of the quality that we probably need to be consistently competitive again are coming to the US just to play. They’re either looking for a certain lifestyle that Kansas City just doesn’t offer or they’re looking to slingshot off MLS to a big European league. The Serbian Superliga and the Belgian Pro League probably aren’t what those players are looking for either, but closer.
Selling young guys is nice to prove our academy can train guys up, but if no one is coming to KC and we sell off our best young guys, how do we get better?
The idea is that if you build a selling pipeline the guys will come. It’s a more transitory roster building strategy than what we’ve been doing, but it’s one that seems to be the way MLS is leaning.
The problem I have with SKC selling is that I don’t trust management to reinvest the funds well. A big justification for selling, to counterbalance the short-term frustration with losing good young players, is that it generates revenue that gets reinvested in the team (as opposed to lining ownership’s pockets). Have we seen any sign of that?
The last meaningful SKC sale was Busio. Any sign that the team has gotten better since then, or was that more money in ownership’s pockets?
The same argument was made for moving the Messi game to Arrowhead. Any sign of those sweet, sweet Messibucks getting reinvested in major new signings? Or was that (ok, you know the drill)?
If Pierre wants to move on to a new challenge, good for him, and good for the team for letting him. But I have yet to see evidence that selling is actually helping the team or giving fans a reason to feel good.
There are other teams in MLS doing a great job of this. SKC? Not so much.
Yes. Our total roster spend has gone up since then. Our second team has brought in a bunch of players that could have easily been U22 players. Last year we had more million dollar salaries than we’d ever had and that requires Garber bucks to buy guys down which you can get by trades or by selling guys and converting portions of fees.
Yes. Last year they were the best team in their conference for almost 70% of the year and got out of one of the toughest groups in League’s Cup and smashed the # 1 seed in the playoffs and only stopped their playoff run because of an admitted referee error. This season has proven that that run was the last hurrah for an old roster but most of the dudes they’ve brought in since Busio are not part of that problem.
Thats not how MLS roster rules work. You can’t just start spending more on guys because you sold a bunch of tickets in a season. You need the right kinds of open roster slots and Garber bucks to be able to spend more. MLS rules specifically prevent teams from doing this. Since that has happened though they have invested heavily in getting better. They hired an experienced sporting director who is getting an enhanced budget to add more technical staff and scouts.
Because you don’t want to. I didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to hunt down this information. It’s on this very website. I obviously recognize that 2 of the 3 seasons since their last big sale haven’t had results but they HAVE re-invested that money. And they fired the guy who decided what players to bring in with that money and blew it so it looks like they’re pretty dedicated to getting that re-investment right this time.
They did not fire Vermes…
But you ARE overselling their position (as usual). There is no Supporters Shield for 70% of the season. 100% of it counts.
Can Messibucks be used the same as Garberbucks? No, but they can be used to invest in non-player personnel. Even the whole experienced sporting director with more staff comment doesn’t make KCOutsider wrong – because we’ve seen nothing. Too early to tell? Maybe, but we are all just frustrated and want to see something happening.
I’m judging by results. Flushing money down the drain doesn’t impress me. I suppose I could have said “reinvested successfully in the team”.
This is WAY overstating the success of last year, when the team stunk for much of the season before going on an abbreviated run that only resulted in a playoff spot because MLS diluted the playoff field that year. Any other year in MLS history and they’re on the outside looking in with their supposed “Supporters Shield” pace. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the St. Louis Smash, it was pretty clear they were a paper #1 that would probably have been taken down by most teams at that point in the season. I’ll grant the initially strong League’s Cup showing by beating Chivas and barely losing to FCC, but then you also have to acknowledge them getting curb-stomped at home by a Toluca team that went on to lose to Minnesota (who then got slaughtered by Nashville).
Is that why we’re still running out one of the oldest lineups in the league while continuing to waste young players? And here you’re conveniently whitewashing the utter hash they made of the first attempt to hire a sporting director and the overall tepid response to this hire.
LOL, Vermes is still on the letterhead. They might have fired his sock puppet, eventually, but Vermes has final approval of everything they do. It’s right there in his job title. We’ve been over this. Not to mention, screwing up their first new hire and making the second one…not exactly a world-beater doesn’t look so much like “pretty dedicated” as “half-hearted flailing”.
Get back to me when management looks halfway as committed to roster turnover and fan appreciate as, say, St. Louis, who even with their low budget are actually making significant moves. Not to mention any number of other clubs who are also a lot better run than SKC right now.
Finally, as jhawk says, as far as I can tell there’s been no move to reach out to fans financially with all these nice profits. STMs seem pretty pissed, not inspired; I wonder why that is?
They should just peer over the river to see what roster churn – and contention – look like…
In your first paragraph you say you’re only judging by results. And then your penultimate paragraph you say we should look at St. Louis. What results are you looking at in St. Louis? They’re below us in the table.
Sid, you’re right that’s not consistent. I do think there’s a good chance STL finish ahead of SKC but you make a fair point.
Well, I, for one, have started spending way more time following the Current. I’ve been a SKC fan since the beginning, so it would take a lot, but the beauty of soccer is that there are many, many options. Liverpool, for instance. I live in Denver, so it would be a lot easier to change allegiance – especially since they just turned around pretty quickly. But I doubt I’d switch to another MLS team. I’m still a Royals fan and I outlasted Dayton Moore. Still a Chiefs fan and I hung on to see Reid and Mahomes. I’ll probably outlast Vermes too – eventually. KC Baby!
Like ar_jhawk, I’ve stuck with the Royals through thick and thin (and the thick/thin ratio there is a lot weaker than it has been for SKC), so it’d take a lot. I’m pretty damned loyal to my teams. I still follow my primary NHL team that’s now 1000 miles away despite having moved away ~20 years ago.
But I did back off on my Royals consumption during the worst years, and I’m doing so for now with SKC. I care deeply about the team and my connection to it, which I think transcends management/ownership. Ironically it’s helped immensely to have the Royals finally be good again, along with the Current. The passionate frustration I often express here reflects a deep commitment to the team. It’s like watching a sibling or friend you love consistently exhibit self-destructive behavior. Again, being a Royals fan is good preparation for balancing despair and loyalty.
I do hear you, though. Like you, I used to be a big NFL fan, and I slowly dropped that entirely because I just didn’t like how the league was evolving. I ended up missing some of the best years of my former team, after following them through a lot of crap, and that stung from afar. So, sure, it’s possible.
What makes it easier for me, and probably ar_jhawk, is that I don’t live in KC (about 3 hours away), so I don’t get presented with regular “do I give them money or not” choices. I get to KC a couple times of year, often integrated with some sports, and this year it’s been easy to choose the Royals instead (I still want to make it to CPKC, too). I’m enough of an MLS fan to be happy with Apple Season Pass even if I just end up watching MLS360 instead, or hopping to a particularly good league matchup. So I can just sort of hold SKC at arm’s length for now and bide my time as a fan that cares deeply about the team and will be very happy to find them moving in the right direction at some point.
Steve,
This wasn’t directed at me but I’ve been having these thoughts so I hope you don’t mind if I respond.
I started following SKC in 2014 when the kids really started getting into soccer. My background is football as I played in HS and College. I quit football around 2012 like someone else said. I only followed motorcycle racing (all of it) and snowboarding (still do). I really leaned into SKC in 2016 as the kids were old enough to enjoy going to games and tracking the players and teams.
I loved SKC from the start. I loved the program, stadium, experience, players and coach. I was shocked (but relieved) that PV was not selected instead of Berhalter for the USMNT. I was 100% on team PV until 2019 when the wheels fell off the team thanks to a shellacking by Monterrey. I started to wonder about some things. I could list them, but they are all well documented here. My wonder continues to grow each year.
My breaking point was the offseason before 2023 when the roster didn’t really change at all. I recall saying on this very website that the team was going to suck in 23…minus a run where Pulido was motivated to earn a new contract, the team was not awesome. The defense was at best suspect and at worst terrible. Because of this, I refused to spend another dime on SKC merch or tickets. I quit going and decided to express my displeasure with my wallet.
In 2023, only 9 teams conceded more goals than SKC. That one stat necessitated some sort of upgrade in the defense. What did SKC do in the offseason before 24 to upgrade the defense? Nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero. Not one single starting quality defender added. Not one single defender removed from the roster…no change. Disheartened doesn’t quite cover my depth of despair with respect to SKC leading up to 2024. I was so angry with the offseason that I quit watching. I started following Miami and the LA Galaxy because they were playing fun to watch soccer. I still pay attention to the scoreline and read the reports on SKC but I’ve only watched 1/2 the games this year. If the 2024 offseason isn’t a complete rebuild, I’ll quit the team.
Life is too short to watch bad soccer just because the team is in my backyard. If I really wanted to watch USL level soccer, I would do that.
This was really well said and very much parallels my experience.
Agreed 100%. If this off-season is not full of multiple, dynamic changes and improvements I am out. Sporting is no longer fun or enjoyable to watch. It is a chore to support a team that doesn’t seem to want to invest in itself or their fans.
Good for KP. I guess seeing more and more of Khiry at RB is inevitable. But as I pointed out elsewhere, the silver lining with that is he’s forced to play the ball forward more often because it’s often literally the only option. Too bad they didn’t keep the pretty hairy one around.
The transfer window is still open, don’t challenge Vermes to bring back old players, it’s his favorite thing, only second to playing said old players XD
the United States transfer window is closed, so no more incoming players. the European transfer window is still open, so players can be sold
On H&A, Drew mentioned he overheard a staffer surprised to see Zusi back in CMP for Roger’s celebration. Apparently the staffer said “Never thought I’d see him back in this building.” Sounded like it didn’t end amicably.
I am leaning that way, too. The only other Sporting match he went to was with Roger and their partners against Miami at Arrowhead and he did not participate in the former player photos etc several others did.
I will add that he appears very happy, though!
Vermes confirmed the transfer on 810 on Thursday. Hopefully the team will provide some details. Vermes alluded that the fee would be helpful