Sporting KC’s Vermes laments puzzling immigration process as team awaits new signings

Sporting Kansas City has been desperate for healthy bodies this season. The club’s two recent overseas acquisitions were supposed to deliver some much-needed depth in the attack, which is the thinnest part of the the team’s roster.

But another week has passed and neither Erik Thommy nor William Agada has played a single minute in Sporting blue. Agada was said to finally be arriving in Kansas City this weekend, but his availability for Sunday’s match at Real Salt Lake would be questionable, at best.

It’s safe to say Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes is frustrated. Sporting announced the two signings on June 23. Four days later, global soccer star Gareth Bale was signed by LAFC. Bale received his immigration paperwork and was present at the “El Traffico” rivalry match between LAFC and the L.A. Galaxy on July 8.

So, what gives? Why the snail’s pace with Sporting’s transfers?

“Maybe I’m missing something, but it hasn’t been explained to me how it is that those players are getting into those teams, and for some reason, our players are not,” Vermes said.

To be fair, some of the recent dealings that have brought players from abroad into Major League Soccer — Cucho Hernandez to Columbus, for instance, or Giorgio Chiellini to LAFC — had been in the works for some time. Columbus didn’t even announce its acquisition of Hernandez until he arrived; rumors swirled for weeks with no official word that he was really en route.

Sporting KC tried to get ahead of the process. The organization’s interest in and near completion of the deals for Thommy and Agada was made public through various MLS sources in the weeks preceding an official announcement.

Sporting’s two signings were made before new players could be registered on MLS rosters — the first date for doing so was July 7. In a season thus far derailed by a multitude of injuries to front-line guys, Sporting, quite understandably, was seeking get them onto the pitch as soon as possible.

Now, more than a week since the opening of that window, neither newcomer has had a physical or undergone a training session.

“You can try and expedite a work visa,” Vermes said. “We’ve done that on all of them and the expedite seems to go nowhere. We get offered appointments that are two or three months out and we have to work incredibly hard to change those appointments.

“It’s just one thing after another and it seems like it just sits in someone’s inbox forever before it gets dealt with.”

Sporting is not the only MLS club that’s been dealing with the puzzling U.S. immigration process. The winter transfer window was a massive stall-out for most clubs seeking to bring in foreign players.

DC United sensation Taxiachris Fountas was officially announced as a signing on March 21 but didn’t get his visa until April 12. Charlotte FC’s two designated player signings were similarly delayed.

It’s not surprising that navigating a byzantine immigration process might take some time. But for some MLS signings, especially certain higher-profile transfers, that process has seemingly progressed much more expeditiously.

Hence Vermes’ frustration.

“Believe me, we’ve looked into it,” he said. “Is it because we’re in the Midwest, or is it because the coasts are getting special treatment? I can tell you this: We are trying to figure that out, and that will change. Because we’re not gonna keep going this way.”

Sporting KC will be even more short-handed than recently usual on Sunday night in Salt Lake City, especially defensively. When the team squares off against Real Salt Lake at Rio Tinto Stadium, Andreu Fontas will be out due to yellow-card accumulation and Kortne Ford will sit after receiving a 10-game league suspension on Friday for violating the league’s Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health Policy.

Nevertheless, Sporting has been playing with confidence in recent weeks, and Vermes sees that as a positive sign of things to come.

Even if he’ll need to do more lineup shuffling to make it all click.

“The way that they’re playing in the game, I think they feel organized,” he said “That all comes from confidence. It’s not because we’ve done something special in training. It just comes from the confidence of the group.”