Sporting Set to Acquire Forward's MLS Rights From Portland?

A string of Tweets this afternoon seem to have pieced together a trade coming up between Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers.

The string started when Thad Bell Tweeted out that Sporting KC was set to make a trade with Portland, sending a fourth round pick in this year's Superdraft to the Timbers for something that would be announced next week. Sam McDowell with the KC Star confirmed that a trade was coming and that it was for the rights to a player. People in Portland got in on the search for who the mystery player was an appeared to quickly come to the conclusion that the player in question was Christian Volesky. McDowell confirmed that Sporting KC had spoken with Portland about Volesky earlier this offseason.

So who is Christian Volesky? Volesky was the 2015 MLS Combine MVP, scoring two goals in three games in the combine. He was drafted with the 32nd overall pick of the draft by the Timbers, the same draft where new Swope Park Rangers' signing, Kharlton Belmar, was also taken by the Timbers, two picks after Volesky. Volesky didn't sign for the Timbers though, instead eventually signing with the Rochester Rhinos. In his rookie year, Volesky helped lead the Rhinos to the 2015 USL Championship where the Rhinos won the title. Volesky lead the Rhinos in scoring with eight goals in his rookie year. Volesky followed it up in 2016 with a 10 goal season for the Rhinos where the Rhinos finished fourth in the Eastern Conference, eventually falling to the USL Champion New York Red Bulls 2 3-3 (5-4) on penalty kicks. From watching highlights of Volesky he seems to be a center forward, a position that Sporting could use some depth at currently with Daniel Salloi the only back up on the roster to Dom Dwyer currently with Diego Rubio out with a torn ACL. Volesky could provide some much needed depth at that position and could probably provide depth out wide, which would give KC another option.