Sporting Kansas City has signed midfielders Soni Mustivar and Paulo Nagamura to new contracts, the club announced on Monday. Per club and MLS policy, terms of the agreements will not be disclosed.
Mustivar’s first season at Sporting Kansas City culminated in 2015 Co-Defender of the Year honors. The defensive midfielder had a 15-5-6 record as a starter in all competitions and led Major League Soccer during the regular season with more than six interceptions per 90 minutes played.
A native of Paris suburb Aubervilliers, France, Mustivar made 25 MLS appearances last season and started all five matches in Sporting Kansas City’s run to the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title. He set an MLS record during the Opta era (2011-present) with 20 interceptions in a 1-0 win at Vancouver Whitecaps FC on July 12 and tallied the first two assists of his MLS career in a 4-3 comeback win over Vancouver on Aug. 15. The 25-year-old’s first goal for the club came in a U.S. Open Cup semifinal victory over Real Salt Lake.
Mustivar began his professional career as a teenager with SC Bastia in France’s Ligue 2 from 2008-10. He then moved to FC Petrolul Ploiesti and played three seasons in Romania’s Liga I, recording 61 league appearances in addition to eight games in the UEFA Europa League. He started in Petrolul’s triumph in the 2013 Romanian Cup Final.
Mustivar has earned nine caps for the Haiti Men’s National Team, recently featuring in a pair of 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers last November. He also started and played 59 minutes on Friday as Haiti defeated Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 to qualify for the 2016 Centennial Copa America, to be held in the United States from June 3-26.
Prior to making his international debut with Haiti in 2013, Mustivar was a youth international in the French national team system. He represented France at the U-20 level during the 2009 Mediterranean Games and holds dual citizenship in both France and Haiti.
Nagamura, who joined the inaugural class of MLS free agents in December, will return to Sporting KC in 2016 for his fifth season with the team.
A 12-year MLS veteran, Nagamura joined Sporting Kansas City in 2012 and has since tallied seven goals and seven assists in 106 matches across all competitions. The 32-year-old midfielder has played a pivotal role in Sporting KC’s three major championships over the last four seasons, converting penalty kicks in shootouts of the 2012 and 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups as well as the 2013 MLS Cup and the 2015 Western Conference Knockout Round. Nagamura played 120 minutes in each cup final victory.
Nagamura has recorded at least 23 appearances in each of his four seasons with Sporting Kansas City and finished 2015 with three MLS goals, one shy of his career-high. Last August, he scored the game-tying and game-winning goals in the 87th and 94th minutes of a 4-3 triumph over Vancouver Whitecaps FC as Sporting KC erased a two-goal deficit in the final 10 minutes plus stoppage time. Two days later, Nagamura was named MLS Player of the Week for the first time.
A native of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nagamura began his career with Sao Paulo FC and English Premier League side Arsenal FC. He moved to the United States in 2005 to play for the LA Galaxy, where he won the MLS Cup and U.S. Open Cup in his first season. He also played for Toronto FC (2007) and Chivas USA (2007-11), becoming an MLS All-Star in 2009. A two-time MLS Cup champion and three-time U.S. Open Cup winner, he has started 233 of 259 career MLS appearances (including postseason).
Sporting Kansas City will spend both phases of the 2016 preseason presented by Children’s Mercy in Tucson, Arizona. The club will first report from Jan. 23 – Feb 8 before returning for the Desert Diamond Cup from Feb. 14-27.
