Nine Key Details about Sporting KC’s New Chief Soccer Officer

Last week, Sporting Kansas City announced the hiring of David Lee as the new President of Soccer Operations and General Manager. He wrapped up his nearly 12-year stint with New York City FC on Monday and started with Sporting KC on Tuesday.

The media and fans got a chance to talk to him for the first time on Wednesday, when he gathered with Sporting KC’s managing owner, Mike Illig. The entire press conference is worth a watch, but if you don’t have 40 minutes, here is what you need to know.

Sporting KC got Their Guy

The first person to speak was Mike Illig, in a prepared statement. The six month wait between the firing of Peter Vermes and the hiring of David Lee made some fans grow weary. But SKC wanted to take their time to get the right hire, especially since he signed a seven-year contract.

“Sporting Kansas City is stepping into a new era… now comes the responsibility to raise the standard, to push this club forward, and to earn back the trust of our supporters,” began Illig. “We knew this hire would be the single most important in the history of Sporting Kansas City. That is why the process had to be thorough. Over the past six months, we evaluated 14 candidates. We brought four of them to Kansas City, and we measured them against 61 criteria: everything from roster building and cap management to youth development and academy integration, to analytics, sports performance, and leadership. We owed it to this club and to our fans to be thorough, objective. and uncompromising. Out of that process, one rose above the rest, and that is David Lee.” 

Vermes took over as Technical Director of the then Kansas City Wizards in November of 2006. He ran the show for over 18 years. Everyone knew PV was woven into the fabric of all things soccer at Sporting KC. The uncoupling of Vermes from SKC was always going to be tough. If ownership has gotten this hire right, that can greatly reduce the blow and the turnaround time.

Lee pointed that out as well. Over the last several seasons, there are seven new playoff teams each year and there could be six or seven this year. “Even if you look back at the last three MLS Cup winners, they were not in the playoffs the direct year before they won MLS Cup,” stated Lee. “No team in MLS should feel like they’re that far away from competing.”

That’s exactly what people want to hear.

The Coaching Hire is Next

When the KC Soccer Journal’s Thad Bell asked what was going to be the most important hire that David Lee makes, with so many decisions laying ahead of him to build out a full soccer operation after the departures this year, he didn’t hesitate at all.

“Hiring a head coach is absolutely critical — it’s the most important hire we will make.”
— David Lee

And hiring a head coach isn’t a new process for Lee. He remarked that NYCFC, in their mere 10-year history, have had more coaches than the 30-year history of Sporting Kansas City. And don’t think that is because of a lack of success. Since NYCFC entered MLS, they lead the league in points (523) and number of trips to the playoffs (nine).

Coaches sometimes moved on for bigger and better opportunities. Lee just hired Pascal Jansen to be the NYCFC coach ahead of the 2025 season. A year that has NYC sitting in 5th with a chance to climb to third on Decision Day (pending other results), despite selling their best player, Santi Rodriguez in the offseason for the second highest fee in club history.

Despite seemingly nailing the Jansen hire, a process that David Lee is very happy with, he’s not content. “I was really proud of the process, but that doesn’t mean the process can’t improve, said Lee. “I’ve already got my list of things that if I was doing it again. I would add these steps into the process, and that’s what I’ll be bringing to this decision over the next weeks.”

The Next Coach Won’t be Here 15-Years

But just because the coach will almost surely change at times under Lee, it doesn’t mean the team can’t thrive through it all.

“But if we hire somebody and we figure out that it isn’t the right fit for whatever reason, two years, three years down the line, or we hire a fantastic head coach and that coach gets attracted by another opportunity that we had happen multiple times in New York,” began Lee. “Okay, that’s part of the game. That’s part of life. And we move on, and then we replace that coach… I will build an organization that can withstand some of those things happening. The structure is what will enable us to continue to be competitive year over year as best as we can in an MLS competitive balance environment that we know is difficult.”

Kerry Zavagnin is in the Running

Inevitably, people want to know if current interim coach, Kerry Zavagnin will stay.

“I had a conversation first time with Kerry after I arrived yesterday,” started Lee. “I think we’ve said if Kerry is interested in the role permanently, then he will go into the process that we will run. But we will run a deliberate and clear process with clear criteria of how we’re going to make a decision on who we think the permanent head coach should be. And if Kerry’s interested in that role, then he will be part of that process. Absolutely. He’s been part of this club for twenty-five years. He’s an absolute legend here. And so, he deserves the opportunity if that’s a route that he would like to go down.”

After starting with three wins in his first five games in charge, Sporting KC have stagnated under KZ. He’ll still get his chance to prove to his new boss why he should remain in charge.

What Will the Soccer Look Like?

“We want to be a possession-focused team,” stated Lee. “We want to be a team that dominates possession, creates a lot of chances, and is fun for fans to watch. I don’t believe in having a formation — I believe in having principles.”

This will come as a breath of fresh air for many Sporting KC fans. Before 2025, Sporting KC could almost certainly be relied on to line up in a 4-3-3. Formations aren’t tactics, and the team went from a high press, car crash style that helped them win MLS Cup in 2013 to a possession-based team for many years.

But when Lee said the coach is the most important hire, he is being humble. He is the most important hire. Unlike in the previous regime, the coach and Chief Soccer Officer jobs are separated. Lee will have principles, not formations he believes in. And he’ll find players that fit that.

Possession was a word that came up over and over. I suspect that’ll be an important part of Sporting KC’s style. But each potential coach will add their spin, as they did in New York. And the players Lee will find can theoretically fit under multiple coaches.

On the Roster and Rebuild

Sporting KC have 17 players that are either out of contract, with option years, or with purchase options on their loans. The thought on everyone’s minds is who will be here next year.

“I think it is going to come as no surprise,” said Lee. “The roster needs to be improved. The roster needs to get better, and it will get better through the next transfer windows.”

As for when those decisions will be made, Lee said they will come in the next “two to three weeks,” and that he won’t wait for the hiring of a coach to make those decisions. There is just one game to go in the MLS season, October 18th against the Houston Dynamo in Kansas City. It’s a final audition for a lot of players.

Roster decisions aren’t due until November 26th, but it doesn’t sound like Lee will need all that time.

“Analytics”

Something that has potentially been missing around Sporting KC is an analytics staff. The club was actually ahead of the entire league when they hired Rui Xu to as the Performance and Statistical Analyst back in June of 2011 before he left for other opportunities and now is a member of the Kansas House of Representatives.

Since then, SKC have fallen off a cliff. American Soccer Analysis has consistently ranked Sporting KC near the bottom of the league when it comes to analytics.

“I want to make sure we’re using information to help make smarter decisions across the entire club… We’ll build the staff to provide the level of analytic and data capability we really want.”
— David Lee

All indications are David Lee will change how SKC look at data and soccer. He has a master’s degree performance analysis of sport from the University of Wales in Cardiff. All his jobs before being promoted to Technical Director and then Sporting Director for NYCFC were in analytics at Exeter City, New York Red Bulls and eventually New York City FC.

Building an analytics model will take time. NYCFC had the behemoth of City Football Group (CFG) behind them and a decade plus head start. This is still a step in the right direction.

Sporting KC Will Sell Players

It’s a concept that can be tough for the casual fans.

I’m still asked on a semi-regular basis why Sporting KC sold Gianluca Busio for a record transfer fee. Fans would rather their favorite, and often very talented players, just stayed and helped their team. But the reality is, you have to sell players. Particularly in Major League Soccer (MLS) where the benefits of selling give teams more General Allocation Money (GAM) to be able to spend dramatically more on their roster.

Lee agrees.

“It should be part of our ambition as a club to participate in the global transfer market,” said Lee. “There’s a number of reasons for that, and there is one that comes back to winning. If you transfer players, you can take extra allocation money. Extra allocation money comes into the team. That helps you build a stronger team. It is the most effective way to build allocation money. And allocation money is critically important to be able to have the strongest roster you can. And so, developing players that have a value on the transfer market is something that I believe is essential.”

And he hears the concern about the impact it can have on winning. “Ultimately, we want to win. Player development can be seen as against winning and I don’t believe those two things have to be opposite ends. They can coexist. There is natural tension that exists when you try and develop players.”

Lee also talked about when you start showing young players that they can come to your team, develop and be sold, more players will come, because they will see the path to advance. It’s a cycle.

And it’s something Sporting KC has almost entirely avoided. It sounds like that will change.

Why He Chose Sporting Kansas City

“I’d been at New York City FC for 12 years, and it was always going to take something really special for me to leave. The history of success here, the people, and the passion around this club — that’s what drew me to Sporting Kansas City.”
— David Lee

In an interview with Charles Boehm of MLSsoccer.com, Lee said he wasn’t even looking to leave NYCFC, but Sporting KC came calling. “He says it was SKC, not him, who made the initial contact about their vacancy.” All indications are NYCFC wanted to keep Lee, yet he chose to come to Kansas City.

There is obviously more to this story. NYCFC were under the CFG umbrella. At best, they were the second team in the pecking order. Decisions were surely sometimes made on high and Lee had to implement them.

In Kansas City, his success, and failures, will be his. Lee is in charge of all things soccer. He’ll hire the coach. He’ll find the players. It’s all going to fall on Lee. The good and the bad.

That seven-year contract probably helped him make the decision. When Mike Illig was asked about it, he doubled down. “We believe we have the best guy in the league sitting right here,” started Illig. “It’s just like when you have a great player you want to lock him up for as long as you can. And that’s what we feel like we’ve done here, David.”

The journey starts now.

Watch the Full Press Conference