Sporting Kansas City has signed forward Alan Pulido to a new Designated Player contract through 2026, the club announced today.
Since his arrival to Kansas City in 2020, Pulido has amassed 29 goals and 11 assists in 61 matches for Sporting across all competitions, including 27 goals in MLS regular season play. Among players with at least 20 regular season appearances for the club, the heralded striker ranks first in Sporting history in goals per match (0.48), second in goals per 90 minutes (0.58), second in goal contributions per match (0.68) and third in goal contributions per 90 minutes (0.81). His 0.48 goals per match is the sixth-best scoring rate in MLS since the start of 2020 among players with at least 50 games played.
Pulido is currently enjoying his most prolific campaign in a Sporting uniform. He is tied for second in the MLS Golden Boot race with 13 regular season goals—one behind leader Hany Mukhtar—and leads the team in both goals (14) and goal contributions (17) across all competitions, all of which are single-season highs since beginning his Sporting tenure as a club-record signing in early 2020.
Pulido has scored 12 goals in 12 league matches since the start of June, more than any other MLS player during that stretch. In doing so, he joins Sporting captain Johnny Russell (2021) as the second player in club history to bag 12 goals in a span of 12 consecutive regular season matches. He also became the first Sporting player ever to score four braces in a 10-game stretch of the regular season from June 10 to Sept. 3.
After missing the entire 2022 campaign with a knee injury, Pulido is a frontrunner for the 2023 MLS Comeback Player of the Year award. Voted MLS Player of the Month for June after tying a club record for most MLS goals in a single month, he has also been selected to the MLS Team of the Matchday five times this season.
Over the last four seasons, Sporting has been decidedly better with Pulido on the field than without him. In his 56 regular season appearances since 2020, the team has a 28-16-12 record (.607 winning percentage) with 1.71 points per game and 1.77 goals per game. In the 61 matches without him during that time, Sporting is 20-28-13 (.434 winning percentage) with 1.2 points per game and 1.25 goals per game.
Pulido was one of three finalists for the 2020 MLS Newcomer of the Year award following his debut campaign in Kansas City. He tallied team-highs with six goals and five assists during the shortened 2020 season—becoming the first player to lead Sporting in both goals and assists in the same year since Josh Wolff in 2005—and ranked third in MLS with 0.92 goal contributions per match. Sporting went 8-2-1 with 2.27 goals per game in his 11 starts that season as Pulido was named the club’s Offensive Player of the Year. The striker’s contributions helped Sporting finish atop the Western Conference standings for the second time in three years.
In 2021, Pulido added eight goals and three assists in 21 regular season appearances as Sporting came within three points of a second straight first-place finish in the West. He bagged seven MLS goals during a torrid nine-game stretch that bookended his most recent stint with the Mexico Men’s National Team for the Concacaf Nations League and Concacaf Gold Cup that summer.
Pulido has scored nearly 130 combined goals for club and country during a decorated career highlighted by five domestic championships and the 2018 Concacaf Champions League title. He developed in the Tigres UANL youth academy before breaking into the first team in 2009 as an 18-year-old. He helped Tigres win the 2009 SuperLiga title and two years later scored in the second leg of the 2011 Liga MX Apertura Final as Tigres hoisted its first league championship since 1982. Pulido enjoyed a breakout 2013-14 campaign with 25 goals in all competitions during his final season at Tigres, scoring in the 2014 Copa MX Clausura Final to finish as the tournament’s top scorer.
In 2015, Pulido signed for Greek side Levadiakos and scored on his debut before heading to Greek powerhouse Olympiacos. He returned to Liga MX in August 2016, joining Chivas Guadalajara on a club-record transfer fee. He bagged 14 goals in his first full season for Chivas, helping the team to a double-winning campaign that ended with his first Liga MX Best XI selection. In 2018, he guided Chivas to the Concacaf Champions League title and the club’s first continental championship in 56 years.
At the international level, Pulido has scored five goals in 20 caps for Mexico’s senior team and was part of the El Tri squad at the 2011 Copa America and the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
VITALS
- Alan Pulido (pronunciation: click here)
- Number: 9
- Position: Forward
- Born: 3/8/1991 (32 years old)
- Height: 5-10
- Weight: 180 lbs.
- Hometown: Ciudad Victoria, Mexico
- Birthplace: Ciudad Victoria, Mexico
- Citizenship: Mexico
- Roster Designation: Designated Player
- Twitter: @alanpulido
- Instagram: @alan_pulido17
