Erik Thommy’s intensity and passion has made a quick impact on Sporting KC

Less than five minutes into Erik Thommy’s Sporting KC debut, his intensity was already apparent. After 25 minutes he had already transformed a lagging Sporting KC attack into something that defenses would have to fear.

“Sometimes players take a while to have an impact not necessarily in the soccer side, but more their personality,” Sporting coach Peter Vermes said. “Knowing the guys on the team and the guys’ understanding of him, I think he’s done that in a very short amount of time.

“He’s done that with how well he plays, his team first mentality, his work ethic for sure, and what he’s able to give the team on the field in his position, how much he fights for it all and how much he cares. He’s shown it from day one.”

His intensity, work ethic and passion are apparent on and off the field.

“I think it’s the German mentality he has,” fellow German defender Robert Voloder told The Star. “On the field, you can see it pretty often. He’s always giving his best, trying to push the people to do well, in training and the game.”

“The fans see it,” he continued. “He’s a guy who will give everything for the club just to win the game.”

So where does that come from? The answer to that traces back to the early point of his career.

He grew up in the small village of Ulm halfway between Munich and Stuttgart.

“There was directly in front of my house a field where we trained almost every day, with my brother and with my father,” Thommy said in an interview with The Star. “I started at like four years old to play in a team, a small club.”

Thommy claims he was forced into Bayern Munich fandom. There was one pub in Ulm, and they only showed the Bavarian juggernauts. But he looked up to Zidane as a child.

By age 15 he had already moved to Augsburg to pursue a professional career. He eventually earned a professional contract there and made his debut at 16 years old, at the time the youngest player ever to play for Augsburg.

“I thought everything will go the perfect way,” Thommy said.

Until it didn’t.

In 2016 he was loaned to FC Kaiserslautern, only earning a total of 6 first-team appearances in two years with Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga’s second division.

“I started to change something in my life,” Thommy said. “I focused on my job more than before.”

In hindsight, he says it was something he needed, and something he thinks everyone needs.

“If everything goes good, goes well, and you play and everything is good, maybe you learn less,” Thommy said. “We have to fail sometimes.”

It was during that time that Thommy grew up. He cared more about what he was doing every minute of the day, even when not training. He was focused on what he ate, and when he went to sleep.

It clicked for him that it was more than just going to the field, playing soccer, and making money doing so. It was a job, a craft, a profession, and he needed to treat it as such to advance his career beyond his 16-year-old accomplishment.

He again went on loan and tore up the third division and earned promotion with Jahn Regensberg, and eventually a move to Stuttgart in the Bundesliga, where he stayed for the last three years, and even had a successful loan with Fortuna Düsseldorf in the 2019-20 season.

Now, after finally overcoming injuries like a broken elbow, and a problem with his adductor, Thommy is healthy, fit, and ready to light up MLS as well. It’s his ability to overcome his obstacles that has lit a fire in him which is now spreading to Sporting KC.

Devastated by injuries to both Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda the Sporting KC attack was a shell of itself in 2022. There was always going to be a regression without them, but there was at least the hope at one point that Gadi Kinda would return. Instead, he was ruled out for the year, and Sporting’s attack never got churning.

But the change was evident the moment he stepped on the field in that debut against LAFC. He was pointing to where he wanted the ball to go, demonstrative in his frustration at chances not coming off. You could tell he wanted it and could tell he was pushing the rest of the squad to want it too.

Before Thommy’s first start, Sporting KC scored 19 goals in 22 games. Since then they’ve scored 14 in eight games. He’s scored two and has yet to be credited with an assist, but you can trace back many of those goals directly to something Thommy did.

Per FBReference.com, Thommy is in the 98th percentile for shot-creating actions per 90 minutes among MLS midfielders. Other areas where he’s excelling? FBref has him in the 97th percentile for dribbles completed and progressive carries per 90 minutes, 96th percentile for touches in the attacking penalty area, and 94th percentile for progressive passes received.

The book on the 2022 season is nearly closed for Sporting KC with only four games remaining, including a home match at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against D.C. United. It’s a matter of when, not if Sporting KC are eliminated, and they will have a few months off before getting back into action ahead of the 2023 season.

They’ll enter that year with a healthy Gadi Kinda, and Erik Thommy in the midfield, something Vermes is licking his chops at.

“When you don’t see Gadi for a whole entire season, you kind of forget what he brings,” Vermes said. “What he’s given us is what we didn’t have when Gadi wasn’t in there. To have both of those guys in there for next year will be a pleasure.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2022 at 1:22 PM with the headline "Erik Thommy’s intensity and passion has made a quick impact on Sporting KC."