Dejan Joveljić wore a winner’s medal and a contented smile as he joined the MLS Wrap-Up crew at their fieldside desk at Dignity Health Sports Park for a live interview in the confetti-strewn aftermath of MLS Cup 2024.
“We showed everyone that the trophy is back where it belongs,” the Serbian striker declared after scoring the game-winning goal in the LA Galaxy’s 2-1 victory over the New York Red Bulls, securing the California club’s MLS-best sixth league title in memorable fashion.
“LA’s back.”
Joveljić, however, would not be. Just as he attained the ‘Galaxy legend’ status he had fervently chased, a slow-motion goodbye played out over the winter months.
“I said a few years ago that I want to be, at that time, the future of LA Galaxy,” Joveljić recalled to MLSsoccer.com on a one-on-one conversation this week. “Finally, everything paid off: It was an amazing journey, and we finally won it. To be honest, we had a great team last season, we did some amazing things; we didn't lose a game at home, which is an amazing achievement.
“After that, I felt that I need something more.”
Fresh start
With the 25-year-old aging out of the U22 Initiative by which he’d first arrived at the Galaxy in 2021, and all three of the club’s Designated Player slots occupied by “The Killer Ps” of Riqui Puig, Joseph Paintsil and Gabriel Pec, the Gs were hamstrung in what they could offer their young hero, despite him clearly having earned a pay raise.
So a transfer saga ensued, one in which Mexican giants Tigres UANL, managed at that time by his countryman Veljko Paunović, seemed likely to be his next destination, only for Sporting Kansas City to swoop in with a $4 million offer that made Joveljić the first cash-for-player trade in MLS history. As part of the transaction, he signed a new contract that made him an SKC Designated Player, and in some ways, the face of the franchise overnight.
“Yes, LA Galaxy offered me the new contract,” Joveljić explained, “but we both knew that it was far from what I want, and they knew that they cannot offer me more because of the MLS restrictions, MLS rules. Unfortunately, I needed to move. I was very close to Tigres, a Serbian coach was there, and I don't know what happened there, but Sporting Kansas City was faster, and we agreed – in 30 minutes, everything was done. And I moved here, and then I'm happy.”
It’s a backstory that stacks extra emotions atop Joveljić's reunion with his former club this weekend, when the struggling Galaxy visit Children’s Mercy Park for Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).
“I just want to win,” he said. “Yes, I play against my friends, against my brothers, against the coach who brought me there, and all the guys there. It's going to be special, but I have nothing more than to win.
“I want to prove myself once more, and it's going to be interesting – and hopefully it's going to be a great game.”
New chapter
As badly as he wants the satisfaction of a W against the Galaxy, one of only two MLS teams still yet to win in league play this season, Joveljić will observe the sport’s tradition of muted celebrations should he tally his sixth goal of the campaign.
“No. If I score, there is no chance I do something crazy,” he said. “Even if I celebrate, everyone knows how much I love LA and coach Greg [Vanney] and all the guys. So that's not important. That's only important for the people who want to make something out of nothing.”
This fixture finds him in markedly better circumstances than his old team, who’ve been ravaged by injuries and enforced departures like his. While SKC and LA sit together at the foot of the Western Conference standings with just seven and three points, respectively, the Midwesterners have won two of their last four matches, scoring 10 goals in that stretch, and look revitalized in the wake of longtime manager Peter Vermes’ departure at the end of March.
That decision was both painful – no one in MLS was more synonymous with one organization than Vermes and Sporting, where he’d worked in various capacities since 2006 – and unsurprising, considering the limp start to the season that extended a 13-match winless skid dating back to September. That much was clear to Joveljić, as destabilizing as such a change might have felt so soon after his acquisition.
“He was the one who brought me here, together with Mike [sporting director Mike Burns], and after a few weeks, he got fired. Unexpected move; nobody expected that after 20 years. When you say SKC, first name that pops in your mind is Peter,” he reflected.
“That's unfortunate. But we needed to move, we needed to wake up, and club decided to open the new page.”
Uphill climb
A skilled chess aficionado once dubbed the “best chess soccer player in the world” by his coach, international master Miodrag Perunović, Joveljić applies an appropriately analytical gaze to his new side’s current outlook.
“Hopefully we can bounce back. I see other teams, difference of the points is not that big, so if we win one, two, three games, it’s going to be close,” he said. “Also, after this season, a lot of players are at the end of their contracts, so I don't know what's going happen, and then we need to sit and to make a good plan. And this club deserves the best.”
He’s been around MLS long enough to know that while the qualification format for the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs is quite forgiving, Sporting’s opening to the campaign greatly reduced their margin for error.
A packed schedule of seven matches in May provides a steady string of opportunities to pick up points, it’s true. Yet any sort of dip in form in the ensuing weeks could well force a shift in perspective towards the longer term.
“Let's be honest: It's very important how you start. We had a bad start. If we had a different start, maybe I would say something differently,” said Joveljić. “Right now, to reach the playoffs, we have good chances, but for the fight for the Supporters’ Shield, not this year. I mean, obviously. So that means that we need another transfer window, or maybe two, to see what we can do.
“But my goal is to reach playoffs, and after that, everything is possible. You saw that last year, New York Red Bulls, they were seventh [in the East] and they played in the final.”
Goalscoring mentality
It might seem as if advancing age and circumstance have handed Joveljić extra responsibility for SKC’s fate. He says his sense of duty is the same, though.
“Yes and no. Even when I was in LA, it's not about money. If I was making less or more, I just put pressure always on my shoulders that I want to score and to win,” Joveljić said. “It doesn't matter if I'm making $50 million or zero, I just want to score. If I don't score, I feel pressure, let's say, and that's my job.”
Still, this feels like a new chapter, and for more than just sporting reasons. Joveljić is already a foundational piece despite his recent arrival in town, especially given his extensive MLS experience compared to attacking mates and fellow winter arrivals Manu García and Shapi Suleymanov, whose service is key to his scoring output. Vermes’ longtime assistant Kerry Zavagnin, a Kansas City standout in his playing days who has taken the reins on an interim basis, describes the Serb as an influential figure in the group.
“He's hungry,” Zavagnin told reporters this week. “He's a hungry player and an ambitious player.”
Dreaming big
Joveljić and his wife Anđela are expecting their first child in a few weeks – they went big on an American-style gender reveal a week or so after MLS Cup – and are planning out their approach to the dramatic changes that lie ahead, be it the prospect of buying a house for their growing family or visits from their parents back in Serbia to help out with the newborn.
“I was thinking about coming back to Europe, because I'm too far from my home, and that's hard for my family and for my friends, for everyone,” he revealed. “Also, it's hard to get a US visa. Some of my friends [have been] rejected. So it's not easy to get here.
“But I'm happy because I'm here. My wife is pregnant, baby hopefully will be born here, and she's going to get a US passport, and those are things that are very important for the future.”
He’s bagged five goals in his first 10 Sporting appearances, keeping in range of early MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi leaders Hugo Cuypers and Tai Baribo, and would prize following in the footsteps of his countryman Preki, the scoring champion in 1997 and 2003, as the second Kansas City player to claim that honor.
Joveljić also retains hope that another season of strong individual numbers can power a push into Serbia’s national team as the Eagles pursue a place in next summer’s FIFA World Cup on North American soil. With established stars like Aleksandar Mitrović and Luka Jović in his position, the competition is fierce. But he need only drive past KC’s Arrowhead Stadium, which will host four group-stage games and Round of 32 and quarterfinal matches next summer, to be reminded of the stakes.
“Whoever asks me about that, I say my job is to play well, to score goals, and if I'm good enough, if I have good numbers, I'm going to be there. My goal is to be here next year, playing World Cup, but to be on the field, not on the stands,” Joveljić said.
“It's a little bit unlucky for me, because our best players are attackers, No. 9s. But why not? Everything is possible.”
