Rumors of Nemeth's Exit Grow

The rumors about Sporting KC forward Krisztian Nemeth's departure from the club are continuing to grow and now his exit is starting to look more and more likely. Earlier this month rumors of Nemeth leaving for Poland came out, but now it looks like he won't be heading to Europe, but to the Middle East. Reports today are that the Hungarian striker will be leaving Kansas City for a club in 2022 World Cup hosts, Qatar.

The whole whirl wind of news stated with a now deleted tweet by Dom Dwyer where he said "some goodbyes are harder than others @KNemeth_Nemo." From there Thad from The Blue Testament was able to get from some sources that Nemeth did appear to be on his way out and that Qatar was the player's likely destination. His potential departure was also confirmed by Sam McDowell with the KC Star who said that a move was gaining momentum.

In 2015 Nemeth was the club's second leading scorer in league play and in all competitions with 10 and 16 respectively. He also assisted on six more goals. The 16 goals was 33% of Sporting KC's production last season.

Nemeth's direct replacement on KC's left wing will likely be a combination of newcomers Brad Davis and Justin Mapp. Between the two of them I think they could cover the production overall, but the question overall is can they specifically cover the goals that KC would lose with Nemeth? Davis has scored four goals in league play each of the last three seasons after a career high of eight in 2012, while Mapp has never scored more than three goals in a season. Sporting will have to hope that Graham Zusi picks up his goal production on the other wing where he only scored twice in 2015. Barring an addition of another forward coming into camp KC is likely going to have to rely on a committee to replace Nemeth in terms of goal production.

The other problem this poses for Kansas City is that it once again leaves them with only two center forwards on the team, Dom Dwyer, the team's leading scorer the last two seasons, and 19 year old homegrown player, Daniel Salloi. And while Salloi has experience in the Hungarian first division there has to be some concern about a him being the only other forward on the team when most expected him to spend quite a bit of time with the Swope Park Rangers in 2016. The team's other center forward options were emergency options in 2015 when KC played Jacob Peterson and Graham Zusi at the center forward position on separate occasions.

There's certainly a chance that Nemeth could be staying, but at this point I probably wouldn't hold my breath.