Sporting KC Announce Signing of Center Back Nuno Andre Coelho

Sporting KC today announced the long waited signing that Robb Heineman alluded to back in December announcing the club had signed Portuguese center back Nuno Andre Coelho. The 30 year old comes to Kansas City from Turkish club Balıkesirspor where he spent the 2014-2015 season as the club was relegated to the Turkish second division. After terminating his contract with Balıkesirspor it had looked like Coelho was going to return to Portugal, but instead he'll head further west and join the MLS side.

Coelho has played for some of the best clubs in Portugal including Porto and Sporting CP and has appeared in the Champions League for the later. His last stop in Portugal before his move to Turkey was with Braga, that's where he had his most success in terms of playing time over his three seasons, but his time there was also marred by injuries, specifically between 2010 and 2011. Since then it appears he suffered a ligament injury and hasn't played a game since around Thanksgiving of 2014 according to Soccerway. That certainly raises some red flags immediately about the signing. Especially with the club already having a player in central defense who has his fair share of injuries in Ike Opara.

Already being in camp with the team is a major plus as he'll be able to integrate more with the team which should see him be able to be inserted into the lineup with less strain when it comes to that point. In better news, Coelho won't count as a designated player for Sporting, leaving them with one open DP slot on the team as they head towards 2016. On the other side it does jump KC's roster numbers to 30, two over the league's roster limit, so there will be some more movement to come either in permanent moves or long term loans to get players off the roster.

Overall I do like this move, Coelho addresses a big need that Kansas City had in bringing in another center back that can start. With that though I am concerned that KC now has Opara who has shown to be injury prone and Coelho who hasn't played in over 14 months at this point. On that alone KC could quickly find themselves relying on Kevin Ellis to again help pick up the pieces in 2016.