Sporting KC Sign Midfielder Flores

Sporting Kansas City added to their roster today ahead of the 2023 season, adding 20-year-old midfielder, Danny Flores to the roster. Flores signs a one year deal with Sporting through the 2023 season with options for the 2024, 2025, and 2026 seasons.

Sporting claimed Flores off waivers after playing at Virginia Tech where he played in the 2021 and 2022 college seasons. Before that, Flores spent time with two academies, Shattuck St. Mary’s in Minnesota and the Philadelphia Union academy. With Philadelphia, Flores played on an amateur contract for Bethlehem Steel/Philadelphia Union II in the USL Championship in 2019 and 2020. In 2021 Flores played on another amateur contract, this time closer to home with the Oakland Roots in the USL Championship. Over his three years on an academy contract, Flores appeared thirty-two times and scored two goals.

Sporting head coach, Peter Vermes, compared Flores to former Sporting midfielder, Gianluca Busio. Flores has spent time with Busio and another former Sporting KC academy player, Tyler Freeman with the US U17 team.

One of the questions coming out of the announcement was how Sporting was able to acquire the midfielder, who had two years of college eligibility left at Virginia Tech, via waivers. Reviewing the MLS rules, Flores would fall under the “Remaining College Eligibility” section on a player who is out of contract. Because Flores was forgoing his final two years of eligibility, was not on the MLS SuperDraft list, and was out of school less than a year he was able to be claimed off waivers.

Flores joins a KC midfield that has already added Nemanja Radoja this offseason along with Gadi Kinda returning from injury.