KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The interest in Benny Feilhaber isn't only coming from Israel, as Sporting Kansas City's playmaker heads toward the end of his contract season.
On Friday, Feilhaber confirmed previous reports that he was drawing interest from multiple foreign clubs, some on this side of the Atlantic, that are looking to secure his future services. Because he is in the last six months of his contract, he is allowed to sign a pre-contract with any non-MLS team.
“At the end of the season, there's teams interested in me right now for me to sign a pre-contract,” Feilhaber told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “There's not anything on the table with some other teams, but there's been talks with my agent with teams in Mexico as well. There's definitely interest.”
A Sporting KC representative confirmed earlier this month that Feilhaber had been the target of an acquisition bid from Israeli champions Hapoel Be'er Sheva, but said the MLS side had not seriously entertained the offer.
Sporting KC manager and technical director Peter Vermes declined to talk on Friday about Feilhaber's contract situation and the club's position on retaining him – but the 31-year-old midfielder, who has seven goals and nine assists across all competitions this season and was third in the 2015 MLS MVP balloting, said he has not ruled out being back in Kansas City in 2017.
“Whether something will happen or not, I think, is yet to be seen,” Feilhaber said. “It's just going to kind of depend on what the height of the interest is, I guess, in clubs outside of MLS and also the interest that Sporting has to try and re-sign me.”
