Saad Headed to Thailand, Juliao Weighting Options

The departures from Sporting Kansas City continued today. To go along with the departures of Aurelien Collin and CJ Sapong, it looks like the team will be losing Soony Saad as well.

Saad is currently out of contract with Sporting KC, reaching the end of his original contract with the club. Saad signed with MLS in 2011 and was assigned to Kansas City via a weighted lottery. He scored on his debut with the club on his 19th birthday, becoming the youngest goalscorer in team history.

Sporting had made a bona fide offer to Saad to retain his MLS rights, but this point it doesn't look like it'll matter. The rumor started on Wikipedia of all places, as Saad's page was updated to show that he now played for BEC Tero Sasana FC in Thailand.

The move was confirmed by Ives Galacrep today, explaining that he would be signing on a free transfer with the club. Saad confirmed his departure from the club himself on Twitter, thanking the "#SKCNation for all your support the last 4 years."

It's a big of a surprising move to me, not that I expected Saad to stay, I was thinking he'd probably leave, but Thailand is one of the last places I'd expect him to go. I thought he'd go to Europe or the Middle East to be even closer to national team duty with Lebanon.

Juliao Weighting Options

One player that could potentially be headed back to Kansas City is right back, Igor Juliao. The Brazilian who had been on loan to Kansas City last year. Juliao played 23 games for Kansas City, the majority of which occurred after starting right back, Chance Myers went down injured. His defensive play needs improvement, but the attacking side of his play looked good in KC's system.

At this time though he's back in Brazil with his parent club, Fluminense. Juliao is willing to return to Kansas City or to another team, but he says he's wanting to play for Fluminense next year. In the end though he says he'll see how things go in preseason with his Brazilian club and then make a decision on what to do.

The problem for Juliao though is that might be too late for Peter Vermes and KC. With Myers' status still unclear coming off of his ruptured Achillies, Vermes needs to make sure that things at right back are set heading into preseason. If Juliao isn't ready to commit to Kansas City for the 2015 season, by the time he does, Vermes may have moved on to other available options.