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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Peter Joseph Vermes | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1966-11-21)November 21, 1966 (age 59) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Willingboro, New Jersey, United States | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Defender | ||||||||||||||||
| College career | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1984 | Loyola Greyhounds | ||||||||||||||||
| 1985–1987 | Rutgers Scarlet Knights | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1988 | New Jersey Eagles | (2) | |||||||||||||||
| 1989 | Győr | 9 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1989–1990 | Volendam | 28 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 1991 | Tampa Bay Rowdies | 3 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1991–1995 | Figueres | 28 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 1995 | →New York Fever (loan) | 25 | (16) | ||||||||||||||
| 1996 | MetroStars | 33 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1997–1999 | Colorado Rapids | 98 | (8) | ||||||||||||||
| 2000–2002 | Kansas City Wizards | 78 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 302 | (39) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1988–1997 | United States | 66 | (11) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2009–2025 | Sporting Kansas City[a] | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Peter Joseph Vermes (/vɜːrˈmiːs/; born November 21, 1966) is an American professionalsoccer coach and former player. From 2009 to 2025, he was the head coach ofSporting Kansas City inMajor League Soccer.
Entering the2025 MLS season, Vermes was the longest-tenured head coach in MLS and has won four major trophies as a manager, the second most of all active coaches inMLS.[1][2]
As a player, Vermes spent several seasons playing in Hungary, the Netherlands, before establishing himself as adefender inMajor League Soccer, playing forMetroStars,Colorado Rapids and theKansas City Wizards.Vermes was also a regular member of theUnited States national team throughout the 1990s, and represented his country at the1988 Summer Olympics, the1990 FIFA World Cup and the1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
On April 4, 2013, Vermes was elected to theNational Soccer Hall of Fame.[3]
Vermes was born inWillingboro, New Jersey. He grew up inDelran Township, New Jersey and played high school soccer atDelran High School. He graduated in 1984, having scored 109 goals. In 1999, he was named byThe Star-Ledger as one of the top ten New Jersey high school soccer players of the 1980s.[4]
Vermes played his first year in college on themen's soccer team atLoyola College in Maryland under head coach Bill Sento. Vermes then transferred and played three years ofcollege soccer atRutgers University, from 1985 to 1987. In his final season, Vermes scored 21 goals and 10 assists for the team, finishing a first-teamAll-American, as well as runner-up for the National Player of the Year Award. During that season, Vermes led Rutgers to their first victory in the NCAA Tournament in 26 years, scoring the winning goal in a contest againstSeton Hall University.
After graduating, Vermes went to Europe, where he played withRába ETO FC of Hungary in 1989 andVolendam of the DutchEredivisie in 1990. In May 1991, Vermes returned to the United States and played three games, scoring a single goal against theTampa Bay Rowdies of theAmerican Professional Soccer League. He then moved to Spain where he played forSpanishSecond Division clubFigueres from 1991 to 1995.
Like many American players, Vermes returned to the United States to join the recently founded domestic leagueMajor League Soccer. In January 1995, he signed with the new league that would not begin league play until 1996. Therefore, MLS loaned Vermes to theNew York Fever of theUSISL where he played 25 games, scoring 16 goals in the 1995 season. In 1996, Vermes was drafted by theNew York/New Jersey MetroStars in the third round of theMLS Inaugural Draft (29th overall) and captained the team in its first season. Although he played the most minutes of any MetroStar that year, the MetroStars traded Vermes on February 3, 1997, to theColorado Rapids forKerry Zavagnin. Vermes would play three years for the Rapids before being traded again, this time to theKansas City Wizards withMatt McKeon for Scott Vermillion and a playerallocation.
With the Wizards, Vermes helped the Wizards finish the season first in the league with a 16–7–9 record, having allowed only 29 goals in 32 games, and eventually winning theMLS Cup. Vermes was recognized as theMLS Defender of the Year, while his teammateTony Meola won both theMLS Goalkeeper of the Year andMLS MVP awards. Vermes played two more seasons with the Wizards, struggling with injuries but playing every game he was healthy for, before announcing his retirement at the end of the 2002 season.
Vermes received his first cap May 14, 1988, againstColombia, and would in all receive 66 caps for the team, playing in the1988 Olympics, the1990 World Cup and the1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup. In the 1990 World Cup, he nearly bagged a goal against Italy with a shot against Italian goalkeeperWalter Zenga. After seeing his playing time wane with the team in late 1993 and early 1994, Vermes was one of the final cuts from the 1994 U.S. World Cup team.[5] He later said he thought that his outspoken comments had doomed him politically.[6] A forward early in his career, his performance in defense in MLS led to his comeback to the National team in that position after years of absence, but he was cut again from the U.S. roster in January 1998.[7]
Vermes was named the 1988U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year and U.S. Olympic Player of the Year.
In 1989, he scored six goals for the U.S.futsal team which took third place at theFIFA Futsal World Championship in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He ended his futsal career with 11 caps and 7 goals.
| # | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | March 28, 1990 | East Berlin,East Germany |  East Germany | 2–1 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| 2 | May 9, 1990 | Hershey, Pennsylvania |  Poland | 2–1 | 3–1 | Friendly |
| 3 | May 30, 1990 | Eschen, Liechtenstein |  Liechtenstein | 1–0 | 4–1 | Friendly |
| 4 | September 15, 1990 | High Point, North Carolina |  Trinidad and Tobago | 1–0 | 3–0 | Friendly |
| 5 | October 10, 1990 | Warsaw, Poland | Poland | 1–1 | 3–2 | Friendly |
| 6 | 2–1 | |||||
| 7 | May 5, 1991 | Denver, Colorado |  Uruguay | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
| 8 | July 3, 1991 | Los Angeles, California |  Costa Rica | 1–0 | 3–2 | 1991 Gold Cup |
| 9 | July 5, 1991 | Los Angeles, California |  Mexico | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1991 Gold Cup |
| 10 | September 3, 1992 | Saint John, Canada |  Canada | 2–0 | 2–0 | Friendly |
| 11 | April 17, 1993 | Costa Mesa, California |  Iceland | 1–1 | 1–1 | Friendly |
Vermes was appointed as the technical Director for the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer in November 2006.
He was named interim coach of the Wizards on August 4, 2009, one day after predecessorCurt Onalfo was fired by the team. The team was in sixth place in the MLS Eastern Conference with a 5–6–7 record.[8] Vermes would lead to the Wizards to a 3–7–2 record down the stretch.Following the season, the Wizards removed the interim tag from his title.[9]
In 2012, Vermes won his first piece of silverware as a head coach, leading the renamedSporting Kansas City (changed from the Kansas City Wizards in 2010) to a penalty shootout win over three-time defending championsSeattle Sounders FC to win the2012 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The following year, Vermes led the club to theMLS Cup, where they beatReal Salt Lake, also in apenalty shoot-out. This makes him the only person to ever win theMLS Cup as both a player and a coach with the same team.[10]
Vermes won his third trophy as Sporting KC coach when his side won the2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup by defeating thePhiladelphia Union on penalties atTalen Energy Stadium. Two years later, Vermes added the2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup to his trophy haul when Sporting KC beat theNew York Red Bulls 2–1 atChildren's Mercy Park.
On August 4, 2018, Vermes coached his 302nd regular-season match – a 1–0 victory over theHouston Dynamo – becoming the all-time leader in games coached with one club inMLS history.
On October 3, 2020, Vermes won his 150th regular-season match, with a 2–1 victory over the Houston Dynamo, becoming only the 5th coach in MLS history to do so.
In February 2023, Vermes signed a five-year extension with Sporting Kansas City through the 2028 MLS season.[1][2]
On March 31, 2025, amid a winless start to the season (0W-5L-1D), Sporting Kansas City announced that it had agreed to mutually part ways with Vermes.[11]
Vermes worked as a broadcaster for theSan Jose Earthquakes. Vermes serves as the technical Director of Coaching for the Blue Valley Soccer Club inOverland Park, Kansas, and was an assistant coach for the U.S. Under-20 National Team.
Vermes's parents immigrated to the United States fromHungary as refugees during the1956 revolution. His father, Michael, was a professional footballer forBudapest Honvéd FC and operated anindoor soccer training center inNew Jersey after immigrating. Peter has two brothers and one sister.[12]
Peter married his wife Susan, who he met in high school, in 1990. The couple have two children.[13]
Vermes was arrested for a suspectedDUI on August 24, 2010, by police inGardner, Kansas.[14] He accepted one year of probation and the charge was dropped.[15] The incident was mocked byPhiladelphia Union supporters during a match in September 2010, with theSons of Ben singing the entire folk song "99 Bottles of Beer" during the team's match against Kansas City.[16]
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | ||||
| Sporting Kansas City |  | August 4, 2009 | March 31, 2025 | 608 | 251 | 140 | 217 | 886 | 790 | +96 | 041.28 |
| Total | 608 | 251 | 140 | 217 | 886 | 790 | +96 | 041.28 | |||
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