Sporting KC values re-signed Roger Espinoza for his playing ability, veteran presence

Professional soccer players are models of peak fitness. They’ll run as much as 10 miles during 90-minute games while maintaining quality play, not to mention all the running they do with their clubs at practice sessions throughout the season.

But sometimes those players remind us that they’re people, too. Such was the case Friday, when Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza met with reporters via Zoom after re-signing for 2021.

“You can’t have as many beers, man,” Espinoza laughed when asked about playing on at age 34.

Espinoza will enter the 2021 season as one of the oldest players on the team alongside Tim Melia and Graham Zusi, who are also 34. Espinoza is entering his 12th season with Sporting KC.

Selected by the club 11th overall in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft, he also spent two years in England with Wigan Athletic between 2013 and 2015.

Entering this offseason as a free agent following the end of his previous contract, Espinoza said that other clubs had reached out to him, too.

“This is the only place I want to play for,” he said. “I don’t know anything else in the league and don’t want to know anything else.

“This is a great facility — as you guys know, it’s probably the best one in the league. So, for me, it was a no-brainer to come back.”

Espinoza approached Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes with a couple of months left in the 2020 season about re-signing for 2021. Despite his advancing age, Espinoza still played 20 games last season, captaining the team on one occasion against FC Dallas.

But discussions about a new contract did not begin until the season had concluded.

“Honestly speaking, I wasn’t surprised,” Vermes said. “As I told him at that time, let’s deal with it at the end of the season, because it just didn’t feel that, with any of the guys at that moment, it was appropriate because we were still in the thick of things and I wanted to keep our focus on the job at hand. But we felt the same way.”

Bringing Espinoza back for at least one more season allows him to continue to not only prove that he can perform on the field but work with a very young core. Sporting KC currently has seven players who are 22 or younger. They’ll benefit from the veteran leadership of players like Espinoza.

“We have quite a few young players on the team,” Vermes said, “and having somebody like him around to help as they continue to transition as players for the first team is very valuable to us.

“It was a signing not just for his play on the field, but for those other intangibles that sometimes are really, really hard to find.”

The confirmation that Espinoza is remaining in Kansas City increases Sporting’s count of confirmed midfielders for the 2021 season to seven. The club is also still in negotiations with midfielder Felipe Gutierrez, who spent the entire abridged 2020 season out of action following knee injury.

“We don’t know to what level (Gutierrez) can get back; better than he was, the same, or maybe not get back at all,” Vermes said. “This is more of understanding that we have to put ourselves in a position that we can protect ourselves against the chance that he may not play again or to the level that he was.”

“So we just have to be smart that if he were to come back that we are protected in that vein.”

Meanwhile, it is looking less and less likely that winger Gerso Fernandes will be returning. The Guinean joined Kansas City in 2017 and has made over 100 appearances for the club. But he didn’t have an option for the 2021 season.

He rejected Kansas City’s initial offer at the end of the season and has not been in negotiations with the club since. Sporting still holds his rights and would like to bring him back, but chances of that happening are growing slim.

“We’ve wanted to bring Gerso back, but he didn’t accept that,” Vermes said. “So, at this point, there is no negotiation because he declined our offer. At the same time, we maintain his rights so I’m not sure if he’s going overseas or what the plan is there.”

Center forward Alan Pulido is embroiled in a transfer dispute himself. The Mexican forward is suing his former club, CD Guadalajara (Chivas).

Pulido claims that he’s owed part of the nearly $10 million transfer fee associated with his move from Chivas to Sporting KC last winter. Sporting KC is not involved in the dispute.

This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 1:29 PM with the headline "Sporting KC values re-signed Roger Espinoza for his playing ability, veteran presence."