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It seems portions of the Sporting Kansas City roster just cannot settle on one number. After five players were either assigned their numbers or chose new numbers, another handful made changes (or in the case of Gadi Kinda, got their first number).
The most notable change is to the number of star midfielder Felipe Gutierrez. He’ll switch from #21 to the prestigious #10 that has bounced from Benny Feilhaber to Yohan Croizet and now to Gutierrez.
In a move that has to be designed to confuse, Homegrown signing Felipe Hernandez will now switch from #85 to #21. So if you yell “Felipe!” at #21, I guess you’ll still be right.
In what could be inter-related moves, Amadou Dia has returned to Sporting KC and he’ll get back his #13 he wore the last time he was here. In 2019, Gianluca Busio wore #13 so that necessitated that he switch his number too. He’ll go from #13 to #27 in 2020.
The last two moves were new players to the team. New Targeted Allocation Money signing Gadi Kinda will take over Roger Espinoza’s old #17 (he switched back to #15 earlier in the offseason). And Re-Entry draft selection Richard Sanchez will take the #1 jersey previously worn by Adrian Zendejas who has since been traded to Nashville SC.
Below are all the changes and new numbers since the 2019 season ended. Hopefully this will help you identify players on the streams for the Kino North Stadium games for Sporting KC’s second leg of preseason.
New 2020 Jersey Numbers
# | Name | Prior # |
---|---|---|
# | Name | Prior # |
1 | Richard Sanchez | N/A |
3 | Andreu Fontas | 4 |
4 | Roberto Puncec | N/A |
9 | Alan Pulido | N/A |
10 | Felipe Gutierrez | 21 |
11 | Khiry Shelton | 14 |
13 | Amadou Dia | N/A |
15 | Roger Espinoza | 17 |
17 | Gadi Kinda | N/A |
21 | Felipe Hernandez | 85 |
27 | Gianluca Busio | 13 |