With milestone near, Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes reflects on his tenure in Kansas City

A momentous milestone will be marked Friday night when Sporting Kansas City plays host Orlando City SC.

Yes, it’s Sporting KC’s home opener for the 2021 Major League Soccer season, and yes, approximately 6,500 fans will be welcomed into Children’s Mercy Park for the game. That’ll be the most fans at the stadium since SKC’s 2020 home opener last March — before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

It will also be Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes’ 600th game as an MLS player or coach.

“I’d give up 500 of them if I had like 10 MLS Cups under there,” Vermes said Wednesday, probably only half-joking.

Vermes currently sits second in league history for games played or coached — 209 as a player and 391 as a coach once all is said and done Friday night.

He recently overtook MLS legend Sigi Schmid (599) and Dominic Kinnear (598), meaning he now trails only Inter Miami assistant coach and United States U-23 head coach Jason Kreis (662). Vermes also ranks fifth in regular-season wins (156), just two behind Kinnear.

A dozen years since his first as SKC’s head coach, Vermes holds the record for the longest-reigning head coach that MLS has ever seen. But his story in the league started long before his days at the helm of Sporting KC.

Vermes’ MLS career began alongside the birth of the league, when he was drafted by the New York/New Jersey MetroStars (today’s New York Red Bulls) and became the club’s first captain in 1996.

It was a chance for Vermes to represent his home state of New Jersey — the MetroStars played in old Giants Stadium in East Rutherford.

“I felt at that moment that that was my team,” Vermes said.

But despite playing the most minutes for the club in its inaugural season, Vermes was traded to the Colorado Rapids ahead of the 1997 campaign. He was traded for Kerry Zavagnin, now an assistant coach for Vermes in Kansas City.

“I remember I got traded and it was like they ripped the logo off my heart,” Vermes said of his exodus from New Jersey.

Vermes played for three seasons in Colorado, but it never felt the same as it did with the MetroStars. Ahead of the 2000 season, Vermes was traded to the place that he would eventually call home for the next two decades and counting: KC.

“When I came here, it was a different vibe for me, it was great for my family,” he said.

That first season in KC was one of the best of his career as a player. He anchored a defense that went on to win the 2000 MLS Cup. Vermes earned the MLS Defender of the Year award.

He retired from soccer in 2002 but would soon return to Kansas City. in 2006, Vermes signed on as the club’s technical director.

He became head coach here three years later and has never looked back.

“I always wanted to be a part of something that I felt like the giving and receiving was reciprocal,” Vermes said. “And I believe that I found my home here. And that’s why I’m here. That’s why I’ve been here for a long time.”

This week, despite all the noise surrounding his 600th game in Major League Soccer, Vermes has kept to his stoic approach of putting the team before his own accomplishments.

“There’s no doubt that this is my club — this is the place I want to be,” he said. “So the number one core value that we have as an organization is the team is always first. It’s not about me and how many games (won, personally), it’s truly about the team and the club.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2021 at 5:41 PM with the headline "With milestone near, Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes reflects on his tenure in Kansas City."