How Davy Arnaud, Sunday’s Sporting Legends honoree, left a lasting legacy in KC soccer
In the winter of 2002, a college junior from NCAA Division II school West Texas A&M trained with the Kansas City Wizards. His work ethic caught the eyes of legendary head coach Bob Gansler.
“His college coach I knew from coaching education,” Gansler told The Star. “I think he put him in a wicker basket like Moses and dropped him at Arrowhead.
That college junior was Davy Arnaud, who 20 years later is being inducted into the Sporting Legends Hall of Fame. The ceremony will take place on the field of Children’s Mercy Park prior to kickoff between Sporting KC and the New England Revolution at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Arnaud captained Sporting KC in 2010 and 2011 and notched 50 goals and 46 assists in his career over 351 appearances.
“Sporting KC and the city of Kansas City mean so much to me,” Arnaud said in a statement.
Anyone who ever crossed paths with Arnaud would say the same about him.
“My father had an expression in German, when he really liked something he’d say, ‘it makes my heart sing,’” Gansler said. “When I think of Davy, I can’t do anything but praise because it’s all genuine, and it’s all deserved.”
When Arnaud came to train with the Wizards prior to the 2002 season it was supposed to be for just a two-week training session. Maybe he would get some advanced scouting ahead of the draft after a senior year at West Texas A&M. But after his time was up, Gansler pulled him aside.
MLS was instituting the developmental contract, a one-year contract worth less than $15,000. Gansler asked Arnaud if he’d be interested in taking it if they took him in the draft.
Arnaud was faced with a choice: stay for his senior year or gamble on himself. His upbringing in the small town of Nederland, Texas helped him prepare for what was to come.
“I always felt like I had to play with something to prove,” Arnaud told The Star.
At one point in his upbringing, he had moved to England, getting into the club Peterborough United, where he eventually got cut.
“Basically they told me they didn’t think I’d ever play professional soccer,” Arnaud said.
With that opportunity now sitting in front of him, he bet on himself, and was drafted 50th overall. The next year, was all about earning his keep, and a bit more money.
“I was driven to play professional soccer,” Arnaud said. “So that was all I was worried about.”
Peter Vermes was in his final year of playing with Sporting, and at 36 years old he saw Arnaud as a little brother. What stood out to Vermes in his first impressions of the young rookie was that he listened, and had an incredible work ethic.
“He wasn’t the most technically clean player at the time, he was young,” Vermes said. “But he had the work ethic and there’s no doubt in my mind that’s why he stayed. And that’s why he had success over his career, because his work ethic is what ruled the day.”
After earning that contract in his second year, things started to fall into place. The Wizards drafted Jack Jewsbury, who has become his lifelong friend. In 2004 the Wizards traded for Josh Wolff from the Chicago Fire.
In that 2004 season, Gansler had planned to play a 3-5-2 formation, but an injury to Preki in preseason meant he went with a 4-4-2 with Wolff and Arnaud up top. That duo helped lead the club to its first US Open Cup title, and they made it to the MLS Cup final.
When asked about his favorite moment as a player, it wasn’t his own big moment. The first thing Arnaud mentioned was Jewsbury’s goal, which capped off a second leg comeback over the defending champion San Jose Earthquakes in the 2004 Western Conference semifinals.
“He’s the best person, most humble guy you’ll meet,” Jewsbury said. “He’s not gonna bring up himself in any of the big goals that he scored. Whether it was the big goal against Manchester United, or two goals in the conference final after that San Jose game.”
Many in the franchise point to the win over Manchester United in that 2010 friendly at Arrowhead as a turning point, and a massive momentum boost as the team began embarking on a rebrand and the construction of Children’s Mercy Park. But he was already changing the club from within.
Arnaud became captain in 2010, which was within the first few seasons for current core veterans Roger Espinoza and Graham Zusi.
“He was the best player on our team,” Roger Espinoza said. “He carried the team on his shoulders, and I’m not kidding about that.”
“He carried our team for those first couple years for sure,” Graham Zusi said.
Zusi and Espinoza were impressionable young men at the time, willing to learn and get better, and Arnaud’s work ethic and genuine personality rubbed off.
“He had this contagious thing in a way,” Espinoza said. “Every game he came out and gave everything he had.”
“We was a guy who cared about everyone, and led by a great example,” Zusi said.
While Arnaud likes to mentions his friends biggest moments as his favorite, he does have one that sticks out the most: walking out of the tunnel as captain of Sporting KC for their first ever match at Children’s Mercy Park.
“I’d been there for a long time,” Arnaud said. “Getting to lead the team out as the captain for a team that obviously meant so much to me was a really big honor for me.”
Arnaud’s time with Sporting KC would come to a close following that 2011 season, but his legacy has continued on throughout the years with the impact he made on people, and teammates who eventually took soccer in Kansas City to its highest of heights.
What he instilled in his teammates and his coaches was a tremendous amount of respect for the person he was, and his work ethic on the field, something he displayed from the moment he arrived in Kansas City.
“He was confident, but he was so humble” Gansler said. “The combination of that and the hard work, all of this is earned. Sometimes people fall into it, and they get awfully fortunate. With Davy, it’s not by accident. It’s all earned.”
This story was originally published June 10, 2022 at 12:36 PM with the headline "How Davy Arnaud, Sunday’s Sporting Legends honoree, left a lasting legacy in KC soccer."