New Jersey Youth Soccer continues its NJYS Legends Video Series, where NJYS Director of Technical Operations James Galanis hosts online conversations with current and former professional players from the State of New Jersey. The conversations feature various topics that are relative to each guest, from sharing their best at-home training methods to reflecting back upon playing in New Jersey ODP and other NJYS programming.
In this conversation, Galanis speaks with National Soccer Hall of Famer Peter Vermes, who is currently the head coach of Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer (MLS). Vermes is the longest-tenured head coach in MLS and the fifth-winningest coach in league history. During his tenure in Kansas City, he has won four major trophies – the 2012, 2015 and 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups and the 2013 MLS Cup – and finished atop the conference standings in 2011, 2012 and 2018. He is the first coach in club history to lead Sporting to eight straight postseason appearances, as well as the only person to ever win the MLS Cup as both a player and a coach with the same team.
In January 2019, Vermes won the inaugural MLS Sporting Executive of the Year Award. Under his guidance, Sporting also received 2018 MLS Academy of the Year accolades.
As a player, Vermes received All-American honors at Rutgers University before representing the United States in the 1988 Olympics in South Korea. He was named 1988 Chevrolet U.S. Male Soccer Athlete of the Year and was also an integral part of the U.S. Men's National Team at the 1990 World Cup in Italy, marking the first time the U.S. had qualified for the World Cup in 40 years. In 1989 and 1990, he became the first American to compete in the Hungarian and Dutch First Divisions, playing for Raba ETO and FC Volendam, respectively. He later spent five years with Figueras in Spain.
During the inaugural season of MLS in 1996, Vermes served as captain of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. In 1997, he was traded to the Colorado Rapids for current Sporting KC Assistant Coach Kerry Zavagnin and played in Denver through the 1999 season, leading the Rapids to the 1997 MLS Cup.
Vermes then joined Kansas City in 2000, playing in front of fellow New Jersey native and 2000 MLS MVP Tony Meola, for what would be the most successful season of his MLS career. That year, he anchored one of the best defenses in league history and won MLS Defender of the Year honors while helping lead the Wizards to the 2000 MLS Cup.