As teams in Europe who had a winter break start to come back to play, one former Sporting Kansas City player is headed to play. Sporting’s 2020 Defender of the Year, Roberto Puncec has signed in Bulgaria with Botev Plovdiv. They currently sit in fourth place in the EFBET Liga this season on 32 points, tied with third place Cherno More. After being Sporting’s Defender of the Year in 2020, his time was extremely limited in 2021, playing just 130 minutes over three appearances. He was passed on the depth chart by defensive midfielder Ilie Sanchez and at times it appeared that HomeGrown Player Kaveh Rad was preferred to Puncec at the center back position.