MLS doesn't sleep in January anymore. While European leagues grind through their mid-season schedules, American soccer is reshaping itself for 2026—a year that matters more than any other in this country's football history. Three moves on a single weekend tell you everything about where the league is headed.
Kansas City's Swiss bet
Peter Vermes was Sporting Kansas City for 17 years. Two MLS Cups, four U.S. Open Cups, an identity built on pressing and production. Then came 2025: a 7-20-7 catastrophe, the worst record in the Western Conference, and a quiet departure in March that still hasn't fully registered with the fan base.
Now the club has handed the keys to Raphael Wicky, a 48-year-old Swiss coach who knows American soccer but hasn't exactly conquered it. Wicky's Chicago Fire tenure from 2020 to 2021 produced middling results—they missed the playoffs by one point in 2020, then cratered the following year. That's not a résumé that screams savior.
But here's what does: Wicky won a domestic double with BSC Young Boys in 2023. He beat Manchester United and Benfica in the Champions League group stage while coaching Basel. He developed Gianluca Busio—Sporting's own academy product—during his time leading the U.S. U-17 national team.
"In my talks with David, we instantly had a good connection and felt very aligned in terms of culture and style of play," Wicky said Monday. "Sporting KC has always been a team that competed to win trophies and I feel that the club has all the ingredients to get back to where it belongs."
That's coach-speak, sure. But the 2.5-year contract tells you Sporting isn't expecting miracles overnight. They're betting on process. Whether that patience survives a difficult first half of 2026 is another question entirely. The season opens February 21 at San Jose—less than seven weeks away.
D.C.'s record gamble
Louis Munteanu cost somewhere around $10 million. A club-record fee. For a 23-year-old Romanian who couldn't crack Fiorentina's first team and spent his development years bouncing between loan spells in his home country.
On paper, it sounds like the kind of move that gets sporting directors fired. But look closer.
Munteanu won the Romanian SuperLiga Golden Boot last season. He's got 53 goals and 20 assists in 149 professional appearances. Celtic wanted him badly—they had an €8 million bid rejected last summer. Valencia came calling too. The kid can finish.
"Washington is an amazing city, and this move means a lot to me," Munteanu said. "The talks with head coach René Weiler and sporting director Dr. Erkut Sogut made it clear to me that something special is being built here."
What's being built is a post-Christian Benteke D.C. United. The Belgian was the 2024 Golden Boot winner, but the club declined his contract option and let him walk to the UAE. In his place: Munteanu and Tai Baribo, acquired from Philadelphia for $4.5 million last month. Two young, hungry strikers instead of one expensive veteran.
D.C. finished dead last in MLS with 26 points. They haven't won a playoff game since 2015. That's a decade of irrelevance for one of the league's founding clubs. Munteanu represents a different approach—youth, potential, upside—and the risk that comes with it.
The 2026 World Cup being co-hosted in North America matters here. Munteanu knows it. Romania still has a chance to qualify through the European playoffs in March. Playing in MLS during a World Cup year, in a World Cup host country, with global attention fixed on American soccer—that's not a bad place to be for a player trying to establish himself.
Ahmed's exit and what it means
This one hurts Vancouver. Ali Ahmed wasn't just a useful winger—he was a homegrown success story, a player who came through their system and became a Canadian international. Twenty-two caps. A goal in the MLS Cup final against Inter Miami last month. The Voyageurs Cup MVP.
And now he's at Norwich City, fighting relegation in the English Championship.
"After several European clubs expressed interest in Ali last summer and clubs approached us again recently, we continued to have open and honest discussions with Ali and his representatives," said Whitecaps sporting director Axel Schuster. "Once Ali made it clear that he wanted a new experience outside of MLS and a contract extension would not be possible, we had to act."
Translation: Ahmed wanted Europe, and Vancouver couldn't convince him to stay. The €2 million transfer fee (per Transfermarkt) is below his market value, but the Whitecaps retained a sell-on percentage. If Ahmed turns into something special in England, they'll get a piece of it.
Ahmed's reasoning was straightforward. "For most of us Canadians, English football, whether it's Premier League or Championship, they're probably the first leagues you're watching growing up as a young kid," he told Norwich's website. With Jesse Marsch building toward Canada's World Cup campaign, Ahmed wants playing time and visibility. Even on a struggling Norwich side—they're 22nd in the Championship, third from bottom—he'll get both.
For the Whitecaps, this is the cost of development. You build players, they get good, and then they leave. Ryan Gauld is back from injury to fill the creative void. But Ahmed departing a month after Jayden Nelson was traded to Austin makes you wonder if Vancouver's window is closing faster than anyone expected.
The bigger picture
Three stories, one thread: MLS is becoming a transit league. Players come from Europe to rebuild value (Munteanu's predecessors at D.C. included Benteke). Players leave for Europe when they've proven themselves (Ahmed). Coaches cycle through from foreign leagues and back again (Wicky).
That's not a criticism. It's just what happens when a league grows in stature but hasn't quite reached the level where keeping its best talent becomes automatic. The 2026 World Cup might change that. Or it might accelerate the churn.
Either way, the season is seven weeks out. The pieces are moving. And if you're not paying attention to January in MLS, you're missing the story before it even starts.