Teal Notes: Catching Up on the Week of Current News

The NWSL draft takes place tomorrow at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Anaheim. It’ll close out what has been a busy week for the Kansas City Current, who have had a number of bits of news come out this week. Here’s a catch up on the news this week for the Current.

New Jersey Sponsor

On Tuesday, the Current announced a multi-year partnership with the United Way of Greater Kansas City to be the club’s new front-of-kit partner. The United Way was already the Current’s official charity partner, but they will now also be front and center on the Current’s new jerseys this year.

The United Way replaced Saint Luke’s, who had been the club’s jersey sponsor the last two years.

Hutton Called in to U20 Team

Along with celebrating her birthday this week, one of the Current’s newest signings, Claire Hutton also received a call up. Hutton was one of 24 players called up for a training camp at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA. It’s the first camp of 2024 ahead of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup coming up in September of this year in Colombia.

The camp starts this coming Monday, the 15th and will run for a week until the 22nd. Hutton is one of two players born in 2006 to be named to Tracey Kevins’ roster for the camp, making her one of the youngest players there.

2024 Coaching Staff

Also this week, the Current announced the rest of Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski’s coaching staff for his first season in charge of the Current. Andonovski is retaining Lucas Rodriguez, who has been with the club since their inception in 2021. He is the only assistant remaining from last year’s staff. Rodriguez previously played under Andonovski when he was the coach of the Kansas City Comets.

One of the new assistants is familiar to Kansas City, Milan Ivanovic. He continues with Andonovski having followed him from his time with FC Kansas City, Seattle Reign, and the US Women’s National Team. Like Rodriguez, Ivanovic played under Andonovski during his time with the Comets.

Also joining the staff is Freya Coombe, a former professional player in England who has been the head coach with Sky Blue FC (now NJ/NY Gotham FC) and Angel City FC. The later of which she’d coached in the club’s expansion year in 2021. Finally, Ljupčo ‘Raki’ Kmetovski, who joins the club as the team’s new goalkeeping coach. He, like Ivanovic, had been on Andonovski’s staff when he was in Seattle. Before that, Kmetovski was the Director of Goalkeeping for the Football Federation of Macedonia.

Current Trade Gautrat to Orlando

Finally, the Current made a trade this morning, sending midfielder, Morgan Gautrat and $50,000 in allocation money to the Orlando Pride in exchange for an international roster spot in 2024.

Gautrat was considered a big free agent signing for the Current ahead of the 2023 season along with former Chicago Red Stars teammate, Vanessa DiBernardo. Injuries though limited her to just five league appearances, four of them starts, and another two starts in the Challenge Cup in the 2023 season. The move does leave Kansas City a little short in the midfield position at this point but there is still time for the Current to look to address it before the season starts.