For Sporting Kansas City, 2018 was initially supposed to be a building year. Peter Vermes has said so publicly all offseason. Instead everything arrived ahead of schedule, from new player integration to young players stepping up in a big way.
One of those young players, 16-year-old Gianluca Busio, was an integral part in helping Sporting snap out of their “summer swoon.”
Busio caught plenty of people’s attention in his first full 90-minute MLS appearance in a Sporting KC uniform, notching the game-winning assist during a physical road match against the Houston Dynamo. Now, after being used mainly as a late-game substitute in 2018, he’s ready to make his mark in 2019.