Sporting Kansas City defender Chance Myers signed a new contract with the club on Thursday and arrived in Tucson, Ariz. to join the team for the 2014 pre-season. Myers enters his seventh season with the club and is the second-longest tenured player on the Sporting KC roster.
“Re-signing Chance was an important goal of ours in the offseason,” Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes said. “We’re looking forward to him entering training camp and another season with our team because he's been one of the core members of this group. We hope to continue the consistency that we've had over that time.”
“It’s exciting and I’m happy to be home,” Myers said. “I’m looking forward to a repeat of last year. Everybody is ready to put in a lot of hard work and get the season started.”
Drafted No. 1 overall as a Generation adidas signing in the 2008 MLS SuperDraft out of UCLA, Myers has made 126 appearances in MLS competition (including playoffs) which ranks third most for the club among active players. In 2013, Myers started a career-high 31 MLS matches (including playoffs) and was the top-rated outside back on the MLS Castrol Index.
The team’s starting right back each of the last three seasons, Myers has combined with Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin and Seth Sinovic to form a backline that has led Major League Soccer in fewest goals allowed each of the past two years. Sporting KC is 29-7-8 (.750) all-time in the MLS regular season with those four in the starting lineup and together they have started all 10 of the team’s postseason matches over the last three years.
Offensively, Myers leads all MLS players in successful open play crosses (91) and leads all MLS defenders in chances created from open play (100) since the start of 2011. He has four goals in all competition, highlighted by two braces and the fastest goal scored in Sporting Park history, and 14 assists across MLS and U.S. Open Cup matches. He also converted a penalty kick during the MLS Cup shootout on his 26th birthday last month.
Earlier this month, Myers joined the full U.S. Men’s National Team for the first time in his career as a member of Jurgen Klinsmann’s January Camp. He previously played for the U.S. Under-18, Under-20 and Under-23 youth national teams.
Myers is the fifth Sporting KC player to sign a new contract for the 2014 season along with Eric Kronberg, Josh Gardner, Christian Duke and Paulo Nagamura. Of the 27 players currently under contract with the club, Sporting Kansas City returns 25 from the team's 2013 MLS Cup championship season. Manager Peter Vermes added winger Sal Zizzo and goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum to a 2014 roster that accounts for 96.8% of all minutes logged by field players in MLS competition (including playoffs) last year.
Transaction: Sporting Kansas City (MLS) re-signs defender Chance Myers
