Sporting KC gets its striker, signing Alan Pulido for franchise-record transfer fee
The years-long search for an impact striker has a conclusion.
A high-dollar one.
Sporting Kansas City has reached a four-year agreement with Mexican striker Alan Pulido that will far eclipse any transfer fee that club has paid for a player, sources told The Star Tuesday evening.
Pulido, 28, arrives to Kansas City on a designated player contract and with the pedigree worthy of one. His agreement to come to KC required a transfer deal with C.D. Guadalajara in Liga MX, where he scored 12 goals in the 2019 Apertura season this fall, a number that led the league.
“We are very excited to add Alan Pulido to our roster ahead of the new season,” Sporting KC manager and sporting director Peter Vermes said in a statement. “He is a winner, has a terrific work rate and embodies all of the attributes we value at our club. We also want to thank (Guadalajara) Chivas for being an incredibly professional partner and appreciate the relationship we have created with them. Alan is ready for this new challenge and looks forward to getting started with us on the field in January.”
Multiple MLS clubs were interested in his acquisition, according to a source. Sporting KC dished out a transfer fee easily surpassing its lifetime reimbursement for international players, which totaled $4 million before this offseason.
After the team did not make the playoffs in 2019 for the first time in nearly a decade, Sporting owner Mike Illig told The Star in an interview this fall that the club would delve into a level of player it had never before targeted.
For two years, the club’s highest-ranking officials have talked about the need for a striker, a shortcoming that was never more glaring than in 2019.
“We need a No. 9. We need a clinical finisher that we didn’t have this year,” Illig said in the interview with The Star in October. “It’s not easy (to get those deals done). But we are putting all of our efforts into going to try to do it.”
Sporting KC’s starting striker last year, Krisztian Nemeth, scored eight goals. The club did not renew his option. It has not had a center forward reach double digits in goals since 2016, when Dom Dwyer had 16. The club traded Dwyer the following season.
Pulido brings a resume that includes 13 appearances and five goals with the Mexican national team. He garnered Guadalajara’s club-record transfer fee, as well, in 2016, and responded with 34 goals in 97 games.
Shelton returns
Sporting KC is bringing back forward Khiry Shelton on a three-year MLS contract that runs through 2022, with an option for 2023. Shelton, 26, spent this year with German club SC Paderborn 07 of Bundesliga. Shelton can play multiple positions. He started 17 of 24 appearances for Sporting across all competitions in 2018, scoring two goals with five assists.
This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Sporting KC gets its striker, signing Alan Pulido for franchise-record transfer fee."