Sporting KC Players Unveil New Numbers

On Saturday, Sporting Kansas City released a list of new numbers for nine of their players. Three players were selecting their first number while six others made changes, including new signings Yohan Croizet and Gianluca Busio.

Croizet will now wear #10, previously worn by recently departed Benny Feilhaber, now of Los Angeles FC. Busio switched from #20 to #13, which was quickly gobbled up by Daniel Salloi. No one had #13 previously so it’s unclear why that switch was made.

Roger Espinoza made the surprising switch from #27 to #17. He had worn #27 since returning to the club after a stint abroad at Wigan Athletic. In his previous stint with Sporting KC he wore #15 which has since been taken by Seth Sinovic. Back when KC was still the Wizards, Espinoza did wear #17. For the last several seasons Saad Abdul-Salaam has had that number but he was traded in the offseason for Khiry Shelton (who wasn’t on this number list but is shown wearing #14.

Another changes was Gerso Fernandes vacating his previous #7 jersey for #12. That move potentially comes to clear the #7 jersey to be worn by Johnny Russell. Russell, who joined SKC in the last two weeks, wore #7 while playing for his previous club, Derby County.

The last change comes as Amer Didic abandons the #55 that he’s worn since coming out of college and signing with the Swope Park Rangers. He will now wear #2, which had been held by Erik Palmer-Brown, who is on the move overseas after his contract expired.

Here is the full list of changes and new number selections.

Those new numbers (as well as all the kept numbers of other players) will be on the back of a brand new secondary kit in the near future. Those kits go on sale at SKC’s Season Kickoff Party on February 28th after Sporting return from preseason in Arizona.

We could get our first glimpse of the new numbers on Wednesday when Sporting KC return to preseason action against the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday in Tucson (the time has changed to 6 PM CT). The Red Bulls starters put in 75 minutes against Phoenix Rising FC (USL) on Saturday and only narrowly escaped with a victory when their backups came on and scored two late goals against Phoenix’s backups.

It will be interested to see if coach Jesse Marsch deploys his starters against Sporting KC on Wednesday. I will be there to cover the game on Wednesday which is open to the public at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, AZ. Drop by and say “hi” on Wednesday and be sure to follow me on Twitter @PlayFor90 for live updates.

Update 2/14/18: Added Jaylin Lindsey and Khiry Shelton. No official numbers are out for Homegrown signings Zach Wright or Matt Lewis.

Update 2/17/18: Eric Dick and Graham Smith signed and selected numbers. Still no numbers for the two most recent Homegrown signings.