Sporting Kansas City announced today that the club has signed 23-year-old defender Jansen Miller, who in December was selected in the first round of MLS SuperDraft 2025. Miller has signed an MLS contract for the 2025 season with club option years in 2026, 2027 and 2028.
A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Miller was taken eighth overall in the SuperDraft on Dec. 20, 2024, becoming Kansas City’s highest draft pick for a defender since longtime captain and U.S. international Matt Besler was also taken eighth overall in the 2009 draft, which was held in the city of St. Louis.
Miller, a 6-foot-2 center back, earned three starts while appearing in all six of Sporting’s matches during the 2025 Preseason presented by Kansas City. He logged 275 total minutes of preseason action in Florida and California, second most among Sporting defenders.
Miller played 77 total matches in four college seasons, logging 27 appearances (26 starts) at Xavier University in 2021 before transferring to Indiana University and featuring in 50 games (40 starts) for the Hoosiers from 2022-2024. He was a Second-Team All-Big Ten selection last fall, concluding his collegiate career with a third straight NCAA tournament berth and scoring a golden goal against Akron in the second round of the postseason.
During his time at Indiana, the Hoosiers were College Cup finalists in 2022, Big Ten tournament champions in 2023 and finished atop the conference regular season standings in each of the past two years. In addition to his time on campus, Miller also played for the Long Island Rough Riders (USL League Two) in 2023 and Ocean City Nor'easters (USL League Two) in 2024.
Miller attended Parkway West High School in Ballwin, Missouri, and played for Saint Louis FC in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy, where he was named to the United Soccer Coaches Youth Boys All-Central Region Team in 2019. He signed amateur academy contracts with Saint Louis FC in 2019 and 2020, training regularly at the USL Championship level. Entering college, he was ranked No. 38 in the TopDrawerSoccer national recruiting rankings. In 2021, Miller competed for St. Louis Scott Gallagher in USL League Two.
Sporting’s active roster now stands at 25 players ahead of the 2025 season, which kicks off Tuesday at 7 p.m. CT with a monumental showdown against Lionel Messi and Inter Miami CF in Round One of the Concacaf Champions Cup at Children’s Mercy Park. Sporting KC season tickets, half-season ticket plans and other ticket packages are available at SportingKC.com. For a full list of Sporting's offseason roster moves, click here.
Sporting KC Roster as of Feb. 13, 2025
- Goalkeepers (3): Jack Kortkamp, John Pulskamp, Ryan Schewe
- Defenders (8): Joaquin Fernandez, Ian James, Tim Leibold, Jansen Miller, Logan Ndenbe, Dany Rosero, Khiry Shelton, Robert Voloder
- Midfielders (7): Jacob Bartlett, Zorhan Bassong, Jake Davis, Manu Garcia, Nemanja Radoja, Memo Rodriguez, Erik Thommy
- Forwards (7): Stephen Afrifa, William Agada, Dejan Joveljic, Daniel Salloi, Shapi Suleymanov, Mason Toye, Alenis Vargas
Transaction: Sporting Kansas City (MLS) signs defender and MLS SuperDraft pick Jansen Miller.
VITALS
- Jansen Miller
- Number: 15
- Position: Defender
- Born: Feb. 10, 2002 (23 years old)
- Height: 6-2
- Weight: 180
- College: Xavier University, Indiana University
- Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri
- Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
- Citizenship: USA
- Instagram: @jansenmiller_
