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Ives Galarcep, who is earning his money at the MLS Combine in Orlando this weekend, is reporting that Sporting Kansas City are set to add their seventh Homegrown signing. This time it’s Zach Wright, a senior forward from North Carolina.
In other #MLS Homegrown player news, I’m told #SportingKC has finalized the signing of UNC forward Zach Wright. Announcement coming soon.
— Ives Galarcep (@SoccerByIves) January 13, 2018
Nothing has been officially reported from Sporting Kansas City at this point but the team was linked to Wright back in late 2016 around when the Josh Sargent Homegrown claim news was announced.
For those that aren’t familiar, the Homegrown Player Rule was designed so that MLS teams can retain local talent from their Academies and the territory around them. Our sister site, The Brotherly Game, has a great explanation.
Wright, who for my money resembles Dom Dwyer a bit (physically at least), just completed his Senior season at the University of North Carolina. Wright had a goal and assist in the game against Fordham that sent the Tar Heels back to the NCAA College Cup, where they ultimately fell short.
For his four year collegiate career he had 15 goals and 28 assists across 79 appearances (61 starts). Wright was a member of the SKC Academy before college and attended high school at Blue Valley Northwest in Kansas.
Wright stands 5’11” and weighs 164 pounds. Most of his time at forward has been spent playing out on the wing.
Wright had a pretty good Senior season which was covered pretty extensively in our own Mike Kuhn’s “On Campus” updates.
The pending addition of Wright brings the forward group up to eight players. That group includes: Diego Rubio, Gerso Fernandes, Daniel Salloi, Khiry Shelton, Kharlton Belmar, Gianluca Busio, Soony Saad. That doesn’t include Cristian Lobato and Jimmy Medranda who also logged minutes on the wings.
It would seem with that many forwards and the pending possibility of that mythical Designated Player center forward joining the team would leave little room for someone like Wright on the first team meaning he’d likely spend much of 2018 with the Swope Park Rangers. Much like many people assume will happen with the prior two Homegrown signings Busio and Jaylin Lindsey and 2017’s MLS SuperDraft pick Colton Storm.
We’ll bring you more news on this and other signings as it becomes available.