Sporting KC: Top 10 Players of the Decade
By Nathan Dunn
1. Matt Besler
Drafted eighth overall in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft out of the University of Notre Dame, Matt Besler had the opportunity to learn from and play alongside Wizards legend Jimmy Conrad prior to the team’s rebranding.
Taking over the captain’s armband following Jimmy Nielsen’s retirement, Besler has kept Sporting KC’s defense steady throughout the past decade. He has played every moment of every cup-winning game Sporting has played in.
The American international was named to the 2012 and 2013 MLS Best XI and won the 2012 Defender of the Year. Besler was also named to the All-Star team in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016.
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The Kansas City native ranks first with 284 games played and has racked up 24,691 minutes. Besler had three seasons in which he played every second of every MLS game for the club. He is certainly well on his way to the Sporting Legends wall, the club’s Hall of Fame, and all as a one-club man. He is undoubtedly Sporting KC’s greatest player of the decade.