Sporting Kansas City announced on Wednesday that the club has signed forward Jacob Peterson to a new contract.
“I’m very happy to have re-signed with an organization as good as Sporting Kansas City. There was never really any other place that I wanted to go in this offseason so I’m glad that we could get a deal worked out,” Peterson said. “It’s also exciting to see some of the moves that have been made, most recently with bringing Roger (Espinoza) back. It shows the ambition of the club and it is definitely a place that I am happy to remain a part of moving forward.”
“Jacob Peterson is a player we feel fits very well for us on the field and within the culture of our club,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. “We are thrilled to re-sign him and are looking forward to the start of pre-season later this month.”
A nine-year MLS veteran, Peterson has 15 goals and 14 assists in 199 regular season appearances over the course of his professional career. He enters his fourth season with Sporting Kansas City in 2015 after contributing eight goals and six assists in 80 games across all competition for the club and helping lead the team to the playoffs each of he past three years.
Peterson is one of only two players in Major League Soccer history to be a member of teams that won each of the following: NCAA Division I National Championship (2003, 2004), Canadian Championship (2010, 2011), U.S. Open Cup (2012) and MLS Cup (2013). The only other player to accomplish the feat was Nick Garcia, doing so in nearly identical fashion by claiming two collegiate championships at Indiana (1998, 1999) before winning MLS Cup (2000) and U.S. Open Cup (2004) titles in Kansas City to go along with Canadian Championship (2009, 2010) runs while playing for Toronto FC.
As a youth, Peterson represented the United States at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championships and 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup. He was a two-time champion at Indiana University with goals in the finals of the 2003 and 2004 College Cups before being selected by Colorado in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft as a Generation adidas signing.
Four seasons (2006-09) with the Rapids were followed by stints with Toronto FC (2010-11) and the San Jose Earthquakes (2011) before Peterson was acquired by Sporting Kansas City prior to the 2012 season. He contributed five goals and two assists for Sporting KC in all competition during his first season, including the game-winning goal in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, and his injury-delayed 2013 campaign was highlighted by a game-tying goal in the CONCACAF Champions League group stage.
In 2014, Peterson was one of four players on Sporting Kansas City’s roster to record multiple goals and multiple assists during the regular season. He scored game-winning goals against Columbus in May and Toronto FC in July, the latter of which capped off a come-from-behind, shorthanded victory to set the all-time club record with five straight road wins.
Among players currently under contract with an MLS club who have appeared in as many regular season appearances as Peterson (199), only two are younger: Dax McCarty (216) and Corey Ashe (211). Peterson’s 199 regular season appearances are second most on Sporting Kansas City’s roster, trailing only midfielder Paulo Nagamura (222).
– Story from Sporting KC