Sporting KC’s Salloi will stay in Kansas City, signing contract extension through 2026
After Sporting KC’s 1-0 victory over San Jose on Saturday night, manager Peter Vermes stood with winning goalscorer Daniel Salloi in the Budweiser Brew House and addressed the fans in The Cauldron.
“I’ll let you read between the lines a little bit, but he’s going to be doing that here for a long time to come,” Vermes told the crowd.
Indeed he will.
Sporting KC on Wednesday morning announced that Salloi indeed has signed a contract extension through the 2026 season. The Hungarian forward was out of contract and eligible for free agency at the end of the season.
“I’ve had many years with Sporting and I have to thank this organization, the owners, the staff, coaching staff, players, everybody who helped me along the way,” Salloi said. “It got to a point where it’s nice to see that we’re on the same page with our future together. What I wanted, the club wanted the same thing and it’s nice to plan long term. (I’m) very excited about it.”
Last season was a career year for Salloi. He helped lead a high-flying attack with 16 goals and 10 assists across all competitions. He was named to the MLS All-Star team for the first time and was a finalist for both the MVP and Comeback Player of the Year. Those 16 goals tied the single-season record for Homegrown Player.
His previous best season was in 2018 when he led the teams with 16 goals and seven assists in all competitions.
Salloi initially was loaned out during his first professional contract season, playing with both Sporting KC II (known as Swope Park Rangers at the time), as well as playing with Gyrimot SE in Hungary.
In 2017 he spent the season with Sporting KC, scoring seven goals in all competitions, including the game-winning goal in Sporting’s 2-1 win over New York Red Bulls in the U.S. Open Cup final.
Salloi ranks eighth in team history for regular-season goals (37) and fifth with 47 goals in all competitions. He is the club’s all-time leading goal scorer in the U.S. Open Cup and is tied for first in club history with 13 game-winning goals. With a total of 40 goals in MLS competition, he has the fifth-most goals in league history for Homegrown Players.
With Salloi under contract through 2026, Sporting KC’s entire attacking core of Salloi, Johnny Russell, William Agada and Erik Thommy will be set to return in 2023. Add to that the hoped-for returns from injury of Gadi Kinda and Alan Pulido, and Sporting should have a loaded lineup.
“When a guy signs and we know that we have guys locked down for a period of time, then we can go focus our resources and our time on some other positions that I think that we really need,” Vermes said.
Sporting KC returns to action on Sunday in L.A. against the Galaxy.
This story was originally published August 31, 2022 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Sporting KC’s Salloi will stay in Kansas City, signing contract extension through 2026."