Matt Besler will be honored as Sporting Legend on Saturday. Here’s what he meant to KC

Sporting Kansas City has honored past legends and club figures through the Sporting Legends initiative nearly every year since 2013. On Saturday night, Sporting KC will induct its newest member into the hall of honor.

This honoree represented Kansas City on the global stage and helped bring trophy after trophy to Children’s Mercy Park. As a native of the Kansas City area, he witnessed Kansas City’s growing affection for soccer, ultimately contributing to a major growth of the sport’s popularity in the heartland.

Yes, that’s Matt Besler. Present at the very first KC Wiz game in history back in 1996. And a force to be reckoned with in MLS while wearing the Sporting KC shirt.

“It’s a bit of a weird feeling,” Besler told The Star. “It’s a feeling you don’t ever think about when you’re playing. You don’t ever step on the field with the intention of, ‘Well, I’m going to be a Sporting Legend one day.’”

Besler played with Sporting KC for 12 of his 13 professional years, and captained the team from 2014 through the 2020 season. He picked up five MLS All-Star appearances, made the MLS Best XI in ‘12 and ‘13, was named Defender of the Year in 2012, and in 2014 was named Kansas City Sportsman of the Year by the Kansas City Sports Commission.

He is third in appearances for the club in all competitions (348), trailing only Graham Zusi (411) and Roger Espinoza (399). He’s second in starts and minutes.

On the global stage, he represented the United States Men’s National Team from 2013-2017, accruing 47 appearances and hoisting two CONCACAF Gold Cup trophies (2013, 2017). The Overland Park native became the first Kansan to compete in the FIFA World Cup, where he started all four games in 2014.

Not to mention the MLS Cup title and three U.S. Open Cup championships he was an integral part of.

“This is possibly the most obvious Sporting Legend induction ever,” Graham Zusi quipped in an interview with The Star.

The resume speaks for itself. The fact that he accomplished all of it with his hometown team and represented Kansas City to the world makes it even more special.

“Whether it was at Sporting Park, on the road in MLS, in an Open Cup final or in the World Cup in a different country, every time I stepped on the field I felt like I was representing the city and the people of the city,” Besler said. “It’s something I took a lot of pride in, and it’s something i took very seriously and put pressure on myself to make sure I did everything I could to represent Kansas City in a positive way.”

Matt Besler the defender

Besler will tell you he was a regular guy who grew up in Kansas City. He wanted to play sports, be a dad and have a family.

“So when I try and think about and answer questions about, ‘What was it like to play against Cristiano Ronaldo in the World Cup?’” Besler said, “... it doesn’t seem real.”

That said, Besler excelled in may ways. When you ask his former teammates about Besler, four words come up: technical, cerebral, athletic and competitive.

“He had this incredible mix of technique, intelligence and athleticism,” Zusi said. “I think that piece in particular got a little bit lost on Matt because of how intelligent and technical he was. He was also an incredibly athletic individual, very fast and very physical.”

Zusi said that ability allowed Sporting to play the way it wanted to. The club exerted control over teams through possession and physical dominance.

In 2017, the team allowed only 29 goals in 34 games, a mark that has been surpassed only once since (Philadelphia, 2022, 26 goals against). His center-back partner that season, Ike Opara, told The Star that Besler’s leadership and tone helped set the mentality for that group.

“From an individual level — and maybe I’m putting words in his mouth — but I think we all had this collective mentality of stealing the forward’s soul,” Opara said. “We wanted to make sure that they felt us, and they left with nothing.”

Seth Sinovic, who played with Besler through youth soccer in Overland Park before eventually joining Sporting and spending plenty of years on Besler’s left, said Besler’s ability to read the game made him stand out even more.

“When you’re playing professionally, everybody is athletic, everybody is skilled, everybody is talented,” Sinovic said. “But not everybody reads the game as well as he does. And I think that’s probably his biggest strength.

Besler on the big stage

Those ingredients make a darn good defender. And darn good defenders end up getting to play at the highest levels. They collect the accolades, captain teams, lift trophies and represent their country.

The 2014 World Cup was the Matt Besler awakening party for those who didn’t know about him yet. From the back line, he helped lead the USMNT on a run to the Round of 16. His performance against Portugal, and specifically in a matchup with the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo — one of the world’s best players at the time — was notable.

Besler said he doesn’t recall a whole lot from those moments, but there’s a reason.

“You’re so focused on what you have to do in the moment, and you don’t really allow yourself to think about what kind of stage you’re on or who you’re playing,” Besler said. “You just kind of approach it like any other game.”

He says that might be boring, but that’s the approach that worked.

“I had a routine, and it didn’t matter the stage or who I was playing,” Besler said. “I was going to stay true to who I was and try to be that steady, consistent presence for my team.”

Along the way, there were still moments that stuck with him, seemingly in the aftermath or buildup to those massive marquee matches.

In the 2012 Open Cup final, he pointed at the rain delay, allowing the stadium to be full for warmups.

“The energy from warmup to the very end, the last penalty kick, was a lot higher than what I was used to,” Besler said.

The following year, he watched as Jimmy Nielsen, then Captain of Sporting KC, helped establish the tradition of painting the wall. Nielsen climbed up a ladder and with spray paint wrote the year “2013” under the spot on the wall that lists MLS Cup wins.

“In the middle of him spray painting the wall, a tiny part in the back of my mind was like, ‘I want to do that one day,’” Besler said. “’I hope I get the opportunity to be the captain of this team and bring home a championship so that could be me up there one day.’”

Nielsen retired days later, and Besler became the captain. And after winning the 2015 U.S. Open Cup on the road, the 2017 Open Cup win at home allowed Besler to fulfill that dream, climbing up the ladder and spraying “2017” onto the wall.

Besler the captain

Drafted ninth overall in 2009, Besler came to the Kansas City Wizards from Notre Dame, by way of Blue Valley West. He missed most of the 2010 season from injury after establishing himself as a starter early.

Then 2011 came around, and Sporting had its first 10 games on the road while Children’s Mercy Park’s construction was completed. The team didn’t win any of those first 10 games and had backed itself into a corner.

“Those were tough moments for the club, and you see, even during the losing moments, he was a great leader and great teammate,” Espinoza recalled.

“He just understands people in general,” Sinovic added.

Usually, captains are known for their speeches. And while Besler gave them, Zusi quipped he wasn’t necessarily an Al Pacino.

“I’m not saying he couldn’t rile up the group,” Zusi said. “But in his subtle confidence, in his ability to just be calm … that gave so much confidence to the guys around him.”

Opara added that the leader isn’t always the loudest in the room, but when Besler “spoke, everyone listened, because he always had a measured response.”

Besler’s leadership helped propel Sporting to incredible heights. But in discussing the list of accolades and honors from his playing career, he recalled something Peter Vermes would bring up to the team before every season.

“The easiest and fastest way to achieve individual success is through team success,” Besler recalled.

“That’s exactly how I feel,” he continued. “I got to do things in my career, individually, that I would have never dreamed of, but it was all because I was on really good teams. I feel lucky that I was one of the guys who got to bear the fruits of all our hard labor.”

Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.

This story was originally published June 26, 2025 at 1:22 PM.