Here’s Sporting KC’s first player signing of the offseason. He’ll bolster the defense
Logan Ndenbe came alive for Sporting KC as a key contributor throughout their postseason run. But an ACL injury sustained in Sporting’s 2-1 win over St. Louis City SC will keep him out for nearly the first half of the 2024 MLS season.
So, Sporting KC got to work quickly in adding depth to Ndenbe’s position, announcing the club’s first acquisition of the offseason: Zorhan Bassong.
Bassong, 24, is a left back who comes to Sporting KC with a fair amount of MLS experience. While he’s currently a free agent, he spent 2021 and 2022 under contract with CF Montreal, amassing nearly 1,500 minutes in MLS regular-season play, logging one assist in 2021.
He is a free transfer for Sporting and will occupy an international slot on the team’s supplemental roster, pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate. His contract is valid for the 2024 season, with options in 2025 and 2026.
Bassong was born in Toronto and grew up in Montreal before heading overseas in 2013 to join the Royal Mouscron academy in Belgium. It is the same academy a young Ndenbe spent time at.
Bassong also played at the youth level for Anderlecht in Belgium and Lille LOSC in France. His first true professional stint was with Cercle Brugge in Belgium before joining Montreal in 2021. In 2023, he had two short stints with Romanian teams, Arges Pitesti and Farul Constanta, before spending much of the latter half of the calendar year out of contract.
Analysis on the Sporting KC roster
Sporting KC manager and sporting director Peter Vermes noted an addition at left back was in the cards this offseason, and it’s not a surprise this one comes on the back end of the roster.
With Bassong occupying a supplemental roster slot, his salary cap hit will be minimal.
Ndenbe ideally could return by June, and Tim Leibold is a more-than-capable fill-in option. Until Ndenbe returns, Sporting needs insurance behind Leibold, who has certainly had his run-in with injuries over his last two full seasons as a pro.
Leibold came to the club last winter while recovering from a knee injury and had a nagging groin injury that kept him unavailable for most of the second half of the season.
The minimal cap commitment also keeps most of Sporting KC’s bigger spending options open. The Athletic’s Tom Bogert reported on the latest edition of Sports Radio 810’s Sporting KC show that, based on conversations he’s had, it seems unlikely that Gadi Kinda will return to Sporting in 2024. If that’s the case, one could anticipate a higher-profile acquisition coming into the midfield and attack.