January 11, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Sporting Kansas City News Release
Sporting Kansas City announced today that the club has named Peter Vermes as Chief Soccer Officer and Manager. As head of the club’s soccer operations, Vermes will oversee newly hired Sporting Director Gavin Wilkinson.
In his new position, Wilkinson will play a leading role in the club’s long-term player recruitment strategy, roster building and budgeting, technical staff management, and the continued development of Sporting’s professional player pathway, including MLS NEXT Pro team Sporting Kansas City II and the Sporting Kansas City Academy.
Wilkinson becomes part of a Sporting KC technical staff led by the following personnel entering 2024:
Peter Vermes – Chief Soccer Officer and Manager
Gavin Wilkinson – Sporting Director
Brian Bliss – Technical Director & Vice President of Player Personnel
Kerry Zavagnin – Assistant Coach
Zoran Savic – Assistant Coach
Ashley Wallace – Assistant Coach
Alec Dufty – Goalkeeper Coach
Vermes, the longest tenured head coach in MLS history, has served as Sporting’s manager since August 2009. He was the club’s technical director from 2006-2018 and its sporting director from 2019-2023. During his successful tenure in Kansas City, Vermes has won four major trophies-the 2013 MLS Cup and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups in 2012, 2015 and 2017-and finished atop the conference standings in 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2020. He has led Sporting to 11 playoff appearances since 2011 and remains the only person to ever win MLS Cup as both a player and a coach with the same team. Vermes is the third-winningest head coach in MLS history with 195 regular season victories.
During his heralded playing career, Vermes earned 66 caps for the U.S. Men’s National Team and competed at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. At the club level, he competed in Hungary (Raba ETO), the Netherlands (Volendam) and Spain (Figueres) before embarking on a seven-year stint in MLS from 1996-2002. After playing for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars in 1996 and the Colorado Rapids from 1997-1999, Vermes joined Kansas City in 2000. In his first year with the Wizards, he anchored one of the best defenses in league history and won MLS Defender of the Year honors while helping lead the team to the 2000 MLS Cup and Supporters’ Shield. He retired from playing in 2002 and was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2013.
Wilkinson has 12 years of executive leadership experience in Major League…
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