Sporting KC Signed the Fourth Most Expensive Transfer in MLS History

On Tuesday, Sporting Kansas City made big news. A rumor that had been leaked for over a month, came to fruition. 24-year-old Brazilian winger, Andre Luiz, was coming to Major League Soccer and Sporting KC.

Sporting KC Sign Club-Record Transfer Andre Luiz

Weirdly, it sort of flew under the radar.

None of the big MLS insiders like Tom Bogert or Paul Tenorio talked about it. A quick Google News search doesn’t even fill a full page with articles. There is the team’s official announcement, MLS has a story, then the KC Soccer Journal, the KC Star, KCTV5 (who did a 24 second segment on him), ESPN, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle and Field Level Media.

That’s it!

Perhaps because Sporting KC are in dead last in all of MLS? But usually something this big at least gets picked up by all the major North American outlets. There are far more stories in Greece on the sale from Olympiacos than there are of the purchase.

Maybe this is just a larger issue from MLS. They have so little programming about their own league on Apple, and the national media is still not that interested in soccer outside the World Cup. There is also a lack of transparency (as you’ll see below) leaving us questioning how much was really paid. It’s hard to have hot stove debate on TV or online when all the details of these moves are kept secret.

Despite all of that, it’s a little baffling. It’s rumored to be an $18 million transfer with up to $4m in add-ons. It’s a big deal and it shatters the previous club record from SKC.

Where Does it Rank All-Time in MLS?

Here is where that lack of transparency kicks in. We don’t really know how much Sporting KC paid. They didn’t disclose it, and it took years of interviews for a more complete picture of the 2020 transfer of Alan Pulido to leak out (now said to be between $7.5 and $8 million). It’s possible we never know a full number. Olympiacos wants it to be high, to show what good business they did, and Sporting KC may be more guarded until we can see how successful Luiz is on the field.

Our best source of transfer news all in one spot is Transfermarkt. It’s not perfect, because it’s in Euros and that conversion rate fluctuates. Additionally, even some of the fees they list don’t align with numbers reported. But it’s the best we’ve got.

Looking at the list, Andre Luiz comes in fourth all-time behind a few moves over the last two seasons. If Luiz hits all his escalators, which are surely performance based, he’d leapfrog Josh Sargent into third place. Something owner Peter Mallouk would probably certainly be happy to pay, because that means Luiz has been productive and presumably making Sporting KC better.

Being the fourth highest fee is no guarantee of success. Number two on the list, Emmanuel Latte Lath, was relatively unsuccessful and is already out on loan from Atlanta United. In fact, Atlanta has been dicey with their moves. They have four of the top 10 and it is mixed results at best.

If we expand to the top 20, Atlanta has six of those spots, with Inter Miami and FC Cincinnati tied for second with three. Cincy has the best hit rate, with all three of their guys either being stars or being sold for a big fee. Beyond that, as my colleague Mike Kuhn pointed out, spending big on fees is no guarantee of success. The list is littered with guys who came and went and only a handful of them have truly been elite.

Without further delay, here is the list.

What do you think of the Luiz signing?

Thanks to the Home and Away podcast for the inspiration for this article. Go listen to them.