Jaylin Lindsey’s Aims to be a Starter in 2020 and to Get to Europe at “some point”

Since the day Gianluca Busio signed with Sporting Kansas City, it’s always felt like a matter of time before he was sold to a club in Europe to chase his dreams. He has essentially said as much. But no one seems to talk about the other Homegrown members of Sporting KC heading abroad.

After SKC’s 2-0 defeat to the Columbus Crew SC in the third game of preseason, The Blue Testament caught up with Homegrown right back Jaylin Lindsey about just that subject. When I asked about him aspiring to play overseas Lindsey replied, “For sure I think that’s anybodies dream. My main dream at some point is I want to go over to Europe at any point in my career. [I want to] get that different atmosphere, get that different style of play, challenge myself out of my comfort zone and get out there and hopefully at some point I can get out to Europe.”

Before you think Lindsey has his head in the clouds thinking too far into the future, know his mind is firmly set on being successful in 2020. He lost significant time in 2019 to an injury that he confirmed happened in pre-training while doing some activation exercises and it was an aggravation of an existing knee problem.

“2020 I feel like is going to be a big year for me,” started Lindsey. “I think this year my goal is to gain a starting spot within the squad and lead the team in maybe assists or overlapping runs. I just want to be one of the main players, the core players in the first team.”

To get a starting spot Lindsey will have to battle with Sporting KC and MLS veteran Graham Zusi who has had that spot locked down for the last couple of seasons. Zusi showed cracks in his game in 2019, but he still has two years left on his contract. Many fans want Lindsey to get a fair shot at taking the starting job and in preseason he has spent time with the first team, including the 4-0 win over FC Cincinnati where he had a delightful assist to Daniel Salloi.

I suspect he’ll start the season as the backup, but with hard work and determination, it’ll be hard for Peter Vermes to keep him on the bench. That will be especially true if Zusi struggles again this season.

The future looks bright for Lindsey and time will tell where he ends up. Here is to hoping he’s in a Sporting KC uniform for years to come.

Catch the full interview with Lindsey below (sorry for the audio issues). He also talks a bit about his roommates this preseason (Gerso Fernandes and Wilson Harris) as well as an update on all the FIFA 20 him and his teammates are playing.