Newcomers Agada, Thommy look forward to helping Sporting KC escape MLS cellar
.jpg "Sporting Kansas City’s two summer additions, Erik Thommy, left, and Willy Agada, met with the media on Thursday. Both are eager to help Sporting KC better its current standing in Major League Soccer.")
At long last, Sporting KC’s two summer signings have arrived in Kansas City.
The club introduced the two newcomers — Erik Thommy and Willy Agada — this week, and both have begun training with the team.
Their respective backgrounds are fairly dissimilar, but their goal is the same: make an impact for a struggling team. Each player has been in this spot before, and both within the last year.
Thommy comes from Stuttgart and has never played in a league outside of his home country — Germany. Stuttgart was in the relegation zone for most of the 2021-22 season but on the final day staved off relegation with a goal in the last minute of play.
While Sporting KC couldn’t find itself relegated no matter how bad this already tough season gets, the notion of not finishing last in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference is hardly foreign to Thommy.
“It’s important that you don’t lose your confidence,” he said. “You have to believe on the pitch that you can win games.”
When Thommy’s agent informed him of Sporting’s interest, Thommy called everyone he could to gather intel about the team in Kansas City. He talked with staff members for the KC club as well as a fellow German player who’d come here in January — center back Robert Voloder.
A potential move from Europe to a country that’s still relatively unknown to him was something Thommy had to take seriously. As the transition started to come together, he was watching from afar.
“If you watch the games, they’re not worse than the other teams,” Thommy, 27, said of his new club. “Sometimes it’s small, wrong decisions.
“... Now I’m in the locker room; I saw some players there and they gave me a good feeling that if we stay together, we will change the results.”
While Thommy speaks with a German intensity, fellow newcomer Agada exudes a jovial spirit. But don’t be fooled by his seemingly ever-present grin: The man who goes by “Willy” is determined to prove himself on the soccer stage in America.
Like Thommy, Agada, 20, comes from a team that survived relegation. But he’s also experienced ample adversity in his personal life: At age 18, he moved by himself from his home country of Nigeria to Israel to pursue his dream of playing soccer professionally.
Away from home for the first time, he called his parents after two weeks saying that he needed to go home. He stayed the course, however, saying he became stronger as a person and a player.
“Before, I was like, ‘No, I need to go back (home),’” Agada said. “But now I feel like this is the time where you need to show more of the world what you’ve got.”
Agada said his family inspires him to play. This week, he recalled the sacrifices his father, Pius, made in order to help him get this far — driving him to training sessions, saving money to buy him cleats.
“When you’re young, it’s not easy in Africa for your dad to just take you to the field,” he said. “They try to help you, to push you into what you like doing.”
His relationship with his father remains tight. On visits home, he still plays against his father in their men’s league practices. He said his dad’s teammates love to see him press Pius during those sessions.
“I’m looking forward to making him proud,” Agada said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2022 at 12:30 PM with the headline "Newcomers Agada, Thommy look forward to helping Sporting KC escape MLS cellar."