Orlando City
Sporting KC forward helped team win USL title in 2013
reaches out to Sporting KC about forward Dom Dwyer, a source says.
Orlando City has reached out to Sporting Kansas City about forward Dom Dwyer, a source confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel.
ESPN’s Taylor Twellman first reported Sunday via Twitter that Orlando City has “aggressively” pursued Dwyer in the last week.
Orlando City officials declined to comment on the report in observance of club policy. The Lions have not completed any deals or trades since MLS’ secondary transfer window opened July 10, but they hope to have some movement this week, according to a source with direct knowledge of the club’s transfer goals.
Teams are often heavily linked with various players during transfer windows and many of the deals never come to fruition.
Dwyer, 26, recently made his debut for the United States men’s national team and has strong ties to Central Florida.
During Orlando City’s first stint in the United Soccer League, its MLS affiliate was Sporting Kansas City, which loaned Dwyer to Orlando in 2013. He helped the Lions win a USL title that year, scoring 15 goals in 13 games and then another four goals in the final.
Dwyer was born in England but played college soccer at the University of South Florida in 2011 before SKC selected him 16th overall
in the 2012 MLS SuperDraft. He signed a contract extension with the club in 2014 and reportedly could be in his final contract year.
This is not the first time Orlando City has shown interest in Dwyer. MLS fined the club and former Lions coach Adrian Heath in 2015 for violating the league’s tampering policy after publicly expressing interest in Dwyer.
“I don’t know what you want me to say about Dom,” Heath said at the time. “If we ring Kansas City one more time, we’re going to get reported to the league from Peter Vermes. By the way, there’s no secret that Dom wants to be here. We’ve tried to get him here. We’ve done everything we can. Unfortunately, we can’t do it yet. But we will keep trying.
“I think this is his spiritual home. He wants to come back. We’d love to have him. But we’ll have to wait and see how long it takes before we can do it.”
SKC coach Peter Vermes responded negatively to those comments, and Heath later apologized.
Orlando City’s front office and coaching staff made clear ahead of the transfer window that they would be looking to add attacking players to the roster. The Lions have struggled to score this season, and star striker Cyle Larin has been in and out of the lineup recently due to suspension and national team duty.
The club also has a large amount of allocation money on hand, the result of a January trade that sent Kevin Molino to Minnesota.
Since 2014, Dwyer has scored 55 goals for Sporting Kansas City. He’s led the team in scoring the past three season, but he only has five goals so far this year, which ranks second on the team.
He became eligible to play for the U.S. when he got American citizenship earlier this year. He promptly was called up by national team coach Bruce Arena and scored a goal in his first appearance, a 2-1 friendly win over Ghana on July 1.
Dwyer is married to U.S. women’s national team forward Sydney Leroux, who also plays for FC Kansas City in the National Women’s Soccer League. Dwyer’s link to Orlando already has sparked talk on social media about whether the Pride will pursue Leroux.
World Cup bid
Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer has said many times he wants the city to be a destination for the world’s biggest sporting events, including the next World Cup held in America.
That goal is now closer than ever.
The city of Orlando has been contacted about being part of the joint bid for the United States, Canada and Mexico to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“We received the formal bid documents on Friday and are currently evaluating the bid and what this would involve from our community,” read a statement released by the city on Monday evening. Fox-35 was the first to report Orlando’s invitation to join the U.S. World Cup bid.
The release also included a letter sent to Dyer on July 10 from U.S. Soccer president and chairman of the United Bid Committee Sunil Gulati.
“We believe Orlando is a strong candidate for participation in this process, given your support of soccer, stadium facilities and tourism infrastructure you already have in place,” read a portion of the letter. “A cornerstone of our bid will be the reliance on existing infrastructure in our great cities.
“We hope to work closely with you and your city to achieve our goal of winning the right to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.”
Dyer’s response stated the city is eager to work with the bid committee and agrees it would be a strong candidate to host games. Allen Johnson, the Executive Director of Orlando Venues, and Jason Siegel, CEO of the Central Florida Sports Commission, will take the lead working with the bid committee, according to the statement.