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Kansas City, Mo. • Every once in a while, Robb Heineman will pick up a ringing phone and listen to the director of some club or national team ask for permission to speak with Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes.
If he was ever nervous about them luring Vermes away, Heineman can rest even easier now.
The CEO of the Major League Soccer club announced Tuesday that Vermes agreed to a contract extension with Sporting KC, keeping him in charge of the two-time defending Eastern Conference champions as both coach and technical director through the 2017 season.
"It's been a fun couple of years," Heineman said. "I don't think we've done everything we wanted to do, but we just really appreciate the progress that Peter has made and the progress that his leadership has made to the organization."
Heineman said he's fielded calls from rival clubs in the U.S. and Europe, and even overtures from several national teams, but that Vermes has never expressed any interest in leaving.
"For us to know that he's going to be with us here I think is really important to this ownership group," Heineman said.
Vermes played for the organization, then known as the Wizards, from 2000-02. He returned to the club as its technical director in 2006 and turned down an inquiry Los Angeles to remain with the team, eventually becoming the interim coach in 2009 and earning the full-time job.
Over the past four years, Vermes has helped to spearhead a dramatic rise in the club that has coincided with its renaming as Sporting KC and the opening of a $200 million stadium.