Dom Dwyer Details Near Transfer from Sporting KC to Olympiacos

It’s been a little light on soccer news lately with COVID-19 (coronavirus) putting a damper on the soccer world. Even with the news that soccer looks likely to return in the coming weeks, this was a story too good to pass up.

Dom Dwyer stopped by BSI the Podcast for an interview so good it had to be stretched into two parts. BSI stands for Benny, Sal and Ike as in Benny Feilhaber, Sal Zizzo and Ike Opara, as if you didn’t know. They are up to their 15th episode of season two with interviews with all types of people (though, mostly tied to soccer but you can’t miss that Will Ferrell episode) if you’ve never caught the podcast before. It’s definitely worth a listen, but it feels harsh to pull quotes from every episode as it stops the guys from speaking freely, which is really the best part.

On this episode Dwyer talks about being a youth player in England (in the Norwich City academy) and getting injured and coming to the United States to go to college in tiny Tyler, Texas at a community college before moving on to the University of South Florida and ultimately getting drafted by Sporting Kansas City.

He talks about his time on loan with Orlando City and winning them a USL Championship before returning to KC to help Sporting win the MLS Cup.

What Happened with Olympiacos?

But the reason you are here, is that headline. Do you remember when Dwyer was linked to Olympiacos in Greece? We wrote about him reportedly being sold for €4.5 million and at the time, Peter Vermes told us there was “no truth” to the report. Well, apparently there was some truth (and we can’t blame Peter really, you have to keep things close to your chest in case they fall through — which this ultimately did).

Dwyer said he had been sold for three or four million (though he wasn’t specific on currency) and that he was given permission to talk to the team to work out a salary. He said they were offering him four times what he made in Kansas City (which would have been significant because his 2016 guaranteed compensation was $618,750).

Ultimately, Dom decided not to go to Greece, despite the prospect of joining the team and immediately playing in Champions League the following week. His wife, Sydney Leroux Dwyer, was pregnant and she wouldn’t be able to join him immediately and he would have missed the birth of his first child.

And ultimately it worked out pretty well. Olympiacos went on to lose that Champions League game and the coached was sacked right afterwards.

We all know the story from there. The next summer Dwyer would be traded to Orlando City for a record in-league transfer. Benny commented that Sporting KC and Dwyer won that deal while Orlando appears to have lost. Dwyer did get a raise, though apparently not as much as he was offered in Greece. His guaranteed compensation for 2019 was $1,503,333.33.

After that the boys go on to talk about Sporting KC. Ike talked about avoiding hanging out with Dwyer and “that group” because they were crazy and might get him in trouble. Dwyer had great things to say about how well Sporting Kansas City are as an organization and the boys try to push him on where he may finish his career.

The guys also share some good Peter Vermes stories too. Overall, it’s well worth a listen for Sporting KC fans and just fans of entertaining soccer stories. Maybe it’s less worth a listen if you are an Orlando City fan.

Below is the link to the full podcast or you can find it wherever you get your podcasts.