Peter Vermes dismisses report of Uri Rosell going to Portugal

Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes discredited a report Wednesday morning that his club had agreed to transfer midfielder Uri Rosell to Sporting Clube de Portugal.

“We’re not selling anybody right now,” Vermes said. “And nothing’s happening there.”

Vermes acknowledged the club has received offers for Rosell, as well as other players, but said no transfer deal is in place for Rosell, 20, in his third season with Sporting KC.

“I can tell you that I’ve had I don’t know how many offers on players over the course of the last six months,” Vermes said. “I could go on and on.”

Rosell, 20, is in his third season with Sporting KC. He started his seventh match of the season Wednesday after starting 31 last year.

• When Sporting acquired 19-year-old Brazilian defender Igor Julião on loan last month,Vermes said Julião had the ability to play right away.

Six weeks later, Julião became the third youngest player in Sporting KC history to start a Major League Soccer match when he was plugged into the starting lineup Wednesday against Philadelphia.

Julião, who won’t turn 20 until August, started in place of outside back Chance Myers, who was given a break with the club in the midst of three matches in eight days.

Philadelphia prevailed 2-1.

“He was the bright spot,” Vermes said. “For 19 years old, I thought he played very well. He also has another piece to his game, which is he’s very scrappy. He just started with us, so in a short period of time, I thought he did a great job in the game.”

Yura Movsisyan remains the youngest player in franchise history to start an MLS match. When he was 18 years and 357 days old, he made his first league start on June 28, 2006, against D.C. United at Arrowhead Stadium.

• An early position battle between Dom Dwyer and Claudio Bieler has heavily favored Dwyer over the first two-plus months of the Sporting KC season, but Bieler earned the start at striker Wednesday — only his second in MLS action this season.

The two players fought for playing time in the preseason and split action over the first month before a productive Dwyer started five consecutive games.

After leading the team with 10 goals in MLS play during the 2013 championship season, Bieler scored his first goal of the season on May 4 against Columbus after coming on as a late-game substitute.

Dwyer scored twice in a 3-0 victory in Montreal on Saturday. He leads the team with six goals this season, with two of them coming on penalty kicks.

This story was originally published May 14, 2014 at 10:59 PM with the headline "Peter Vermes dismisses report of Uri Rosell going to Portugal."