Sporting KC on Friday announced the signing of defender Ethan Bartlow.
Just a little more than 24 hours before the 2026 season opener, the club’s roster thus reached 22 players, still eight short of Major League Soccer’s 30-man limit.
If Sporting KC’s offseason rebuild feels incomplete, that’s because it is. But it’s not for lack of effort, as explained Friday by president of soccer operations and general manager David Lee. He characterized the current transfer window as “challenging.”
“We wanted to be further along than we are with bringing in players,” he said ahead of Sporting KC’s Saturday opener against the Earthquakes (9:30 p.m. CT) in San Jose, California.
Sporting KC has been active, adding 10 players since parting ways with 13 at the end of the 2025 season. But the task of replacing that many first-teamers proved to be more difficult than anticipated.
Sporting was working on two fronts, also hiring a new head coach — Raphael Wicky — and first-team staff. No new staff was added to Sporting’s front office or scouting and analytics operations, however: Mike Burns and one domestic scout are the extent of the team’s personnel in that area at the moment (though Lee talked Friday of adding more).
All but one of Sporting KC’s signings this offseason were domestic — no international players. Sporting had a deal nearly done to acquire a player from Universitario in Peru earlier in the window. But it fell through in spectacular fashion, through no fault of the player, the selling club or Sporting.
So when Lee says it’s been challenging, that might be an understatement.
“Like any window — I’ve been through a lot now in my career — none ever go quite as smoothly as you want,” Lee said. “And certainly, this has been more challenging than I hoped so far.
“But I’m really pleased with the work we have done, and I’m very confident in what we will have when the window closes.”
So what has been done so far?
Ten new players have joined Sporting KC’s roster this offseason.
The addition of Lasse Berg Johnsen, earlier this week, is the type of signing that fans had been yearning for. Other new names may not be as splashy, but they appear to include some shrewd acquisitions — players in the emerging and prime years of their careers.
It takes time to find the cream of the crop. Spending money for the sake of it, or hamstringing Sporting’s future with expensive players who aren’t the right fit — those things don’t make sense to Lee.
“We have to make decisions that are going to benefit the club for a long time to come,” he said. “We’re in a position where we have flexibility in our roster for probably the first time in a number of years.”
Allocation money, roster flexibility
The flexibility Lee discussed usually comes from general allocation money, or GAM. And in recent league figures, Sporting KC had the 17th most allocation money in MLS.
The club can get at least $1 million more by declaring its intent to use the “two designated players and four U-22 initiative player model.” But the best way to create more allocation money is by transferring players.
Sporting KC hasn’t done that since the transfer of Kayden Pierre in the middle of the 2024 season. And that particular stash of allocation of money, depending on how the previous regime used it, may no longer be available.
None the 13 player departures at the end of last season netted Sporting anything in return. And Daniel Salloi’s exit to Toronto this week was not due to a trade request put in by the player, or the action of a club that was looking to move that player, according to Lee.
Rather, it was a proposition that worked for all sides. Sporting KC received a $300,000 up-front allocation, with $700,000 more possible in incentives. (A source with knowledge of the deal told The Star that $200,000 worth of those incentives have already been triggered.)
More allocation money means more roster flexibility.
What more can be added?
The transfer window for Sporting KC remains open until March 26. Lee said he hopes to add three to six more players.
Positions of interest include center-back, midfield and both wings. Given how Sporting’s roster build has gone, it’s likely these signings would be higher-cost, higher-salary in nature. It’s also likely they’ll come from abroad: Sporting KC has five international slots open, Lee said.
But as the Kansas City front office creates more flexibility for these moves, team officials know they can’t just spend for the sake of it — or panic because their roster isn’t 100% where they wanted it to be for the season opener.
“One thing we cannot do is bring players in that will prohibit us from continuing to strengthen the roster year after year,” Lee said, “by either signing the wrong player for the wrong contract or the wrong value.”
That is why Sporting KC’s roster sits at just 22 players on the eve of the club’s first match of the 2026 MLS season. Lee is navigating myriad complexities, some of which may not be visible at first glance.
“There’s urgency to get players in before the end of the window,” he said, “and I know that we will do that to help the group that we have. But we also want to make smart, long-term decisions as well.”
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at [email protected].
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