Sporting Kansas City selected forward Robert Beric on Thursday in Stage 2 of the 2021 MLS Re-Entry Process.
Per league policy, Sporting KC is required to make a genuine contract offer to Beric within the next seven days. If an agreement is reached, Beric will be added to the team’s roster for the 2022 season. If an agreement is not reached, Sporting will hold the Right of First Refusal for Beric within MLS.
Beric led Chicago Fire FC in scoring each of the past two seasons with 20 goals and four assists in 56 total appearances. In 2020, Beric finished as the league’s second leading scorer with 12 goals and was an MLS Newcomer of the Year finalist alongside Sporting KC striker Alan Pulido.
The 30-year-old has more than 150 goals in a professional career that began in his native Slovenia with three league championships and three domestic cup titles. Beric moved to Austria, where he became the league’s second highest scorer with 27 goals for Rapid Wien in the 2014-15 season, before transferring to AS Saint-Etienne for five seasons in France.
Beric, who received his U.S. Green Card in 2021, has also earned 25 appearances with the Slovenia national team, highlighted by caps in FIFA World Cup qualifying, UEFA Euro qualifying and the 2018-19 UEFA Nations League.
Major League Soccer’s Re-Entry Process provides teams the opportunity to select MLS players who are at least 22 years old with a minimum of one year of MLS service whose contract options were not exercised or who are out of contract and did not receive a Bona Fide Offer. The Re-Entry Process, conducted in two separate drafts, does not include players eligible for free agency or players who opt out of the process.
Sporting KC draft history in MLS Re-Entry Process
2021: Robert Beric (Stage 2)
2020: Kendall McIntosh (Stage 1), Felipe Gutierrez (Stage 2)*
2019: Richard Sanchez (Stage 1)
2016: Andrew Dykstra (Stage 2)
2015: Alec Kann (Stage 1)
2010: Frankie Hejduk (Stage 2)**
Gutierrez signed with CD Universidad Catolica (Chile)
*Hejduk signed with the LA Galaxy via trade
