All three selections made by Sporting Kansas City in this year’s Major League Soccer Superdraft hail from programs in the Big Ten Conference.
During Friday’s draft, SKC selected defender Jansen Miller from the Indiana Hoosiers with the eighth overall pick. Miller started his collegiate career at Xavier before transferring to Indiana, where he was a second-team all-conference selection and part of the 2023 Big Ten Conference tournament champions. The St Louis native and Parkway West product also scored the golden goal against Akron in the second round of this past fall’s NCAA College Cup. Sporting had the fourth pick but agreed to a trade with Colorado to move down, with Colorado sending general allocation money to Sporting.
Sporting then selected Ohio State defender Anthony Samways with the 34th overall pick. Samways was captain of the Buckeye squad that won this year’s Big Ten conference tournament and made it all the way to the national semifinals. He made 67 appearances for the Buckeyes, scoring twice and adding 13 assists. Lastly, Sporting drafted midfielder Leon Koehl from Maryland with the 64th overall pick. Koehl appeared in 30 contests for the Terrapins over two seasons, claiming seven goals and four assists. He earned first-team all-conference honors as Maryland made a return to the College Cup. Koehl is a German native who spent his youth career in the Bayer Leverkusen system and was briefly on the Bundesliga side’s roster, but made no game appearances.
Meanwhile, one of this year’s most heralded college players is on his way to Saint Louis City SC. The team selected forward Emil Jääskeläinen from Akron with the seventh overall selection. Jääskeläinen is a finalist for the MAC Hermann trophy, awarded to the best player in college soccer. He was this year’s Big East offensive player of the year as he lead the NCAA with 23 goals and eight assists this fall. He also claimed 43 goals when he played for Long Island University.
Right back Joey Zalinsky from Rutgers was city’s second round pick, 37th overall. In addition to his two goals in 59 appearances for the Scarlet Knights, Zalinsky suited up in 2020 for the New York Red Bulls II in the United Soccer League. City then selected goalkeeper Colin Welsh from Western Michigan with the 67th pick. Welsh hails from Overland Park, Kansas and posted a record of 11-3-6 for the Broncos to earn the Missouri Valley Conference’s goalkeeper of the year award. He initially played for Memphis University, making 36 appearances for the Tigers.