Sporting KC Transfer Botond Barath to Hungary

Sporting Kansas City announced on Saturday that they had sold center back Botond Barath to Hungarian club Budapest Honved FC. You may recall that Borath came from Hungary ahead of the 2019 season. He’ll return to his former club in this deal.

“Budapest Honved wanted me, and I wanted more playing time,” said Barath. “Also there is too much uncertainty around this MLS-season due to the COVID-19 situation in the US.”

What Does it Mean for KC?

Barath had not yet appeared in 2020 but he played significant minutes in 2019 logging 20 starts and 21 appearances for 1,749 minutes. However, he appeared to fall out of favor and was buried in the depth chart behind Matt Besler, Roberto Puncec and probably Winston Reid. If Andreu Fontas were healthy, it’s possible he’d be ahead of him too. The only player who is likely surely behind Barath is former draft pick Graham Smith.

Unfortunately, Fontas isn’t healthy. Reid may still not be fully recovered and suddenly Sporting KC appear to be pretty thin at CB.

There are options from Sporting KC II, which have a decent chunk of young CB talent. They have Kaveh Rad (who would be a Homegrown signing), former US Youth International Danny Barbir, Petar Cuic, a young Croatian international and former SuperDraft pick Camden Riley. Of those, Cuic is on loan and Barbir is an unknown. The two most likely moves are Riley, who is the oldest and has mostly played defensive mid (which is another need) and Rad, who would be my pick, though he’s still just 19 and would be emergency depth only at this point.

The Blue Testament will bring you more news as it becomes available.