Foreign Interest in Gutierrez

Sporting Kansas City players are in Arizona now to begin 2019 preseason, but one player is drawing interest from teams in his native country. A report from Fox Sports Chile stated that Universidad Catolica was interested in bringing midfielder Felipe Gutierrez back to the club. Los Cruzados finished first in the Chilean league in 2018 and will kick off 2019 with the Supercopa de Chile against Palentino and in the 2019 Copa Libertadores and are looking to add reinforcements to the team.

Gutierrez started his career with the Santiago club 10 years ago before he moved to Europe in 2012. He played 65 times for the club before moving to the Netherlands and played with Betis and Internacional before signing with Sporting before the 2018 season.

Sporting for their part have no interest in parting with their designated player midfielder who appeared in 24 games and scored seven goals in his first season with Kansas City. Given his contribution to Sporting last year, this was easily the right decision to make for the club, Gutierrez was a large part of KC’s success in 2018 and while KC managed fine when he was out of the lineup, the thought of not having him in 2019 would leave a hole in Kansas City’s midfield that no one else on the roster could fill.

His play in the midfield allowed Roger Espinoza to get forward more and have a career year offensively for the club. It would also be a blow to Kansas City’s hopes in the CONCACAF Champions League in February as well if they were to lose Gutierrez. Sporting has shown in the past that every player has a price, but right now the price for Gutierrez is likely quite high.