Former U.S. national team player and longtime Sporting Kansas City head coach Peter Vermes and veteran coach and player development director Tom Durkin have been named recipients of the 2027 Walt Chyzowych Lifetime Achievement Awards. They will be honored on Jan. 23 at the United Soccer Coaches Convention in Kansas City, during a ceremony hosted by the Walt Chyzowych Fund at the Loews Kansas City Hotel.
Peter Vermes, 59, earned 66 U.S. national team caps, and played at the 1988 Olympics and 1990 World Cup. A 2013 National Soccer Hall of Fame inductee, he won MLS Cup with the Kansas City Wizards as a player in 2000 and as head coach of Sporting Kansas City in 2013, becoming the first person to win the title in both roles with the same club. Vermes also guided Kansas City to three U.S. Open Cup titles during a coaching tenure that lasted from 2009 to 2025, making him the longest-serving head coach with one team in MLS history. He currently serves as technical director of coaching for Blue Valley Soccer Club in Overland Park, Kansas.
Tom Durkin has spent more than four decades coaching and developing players at the college, professional and youth national team levels. His career includes coaching positions at Union County College, Rutgers-Newark and Richland College, as well as assistant coaching roles with the U.S. U-17 men’s national team, Tampa Bay Mutiny and Boston Breakers. He also served as academy director at IMG Academies in Bradenton, Florida, and became head coach of the NWSL’s Boston Breakers in 2014. A longtime contributor to U.S. Soccer’s coaching education programs, Durkin has served since 2024 as director of MLS Next Real Salt Lake Arizona, overseeing player development and pathways to Real Salt Lake’s academy in Utah.
Walt Chyzowych Fund Life Time Achievement Award Winners
Jerry Yeagley 1996
Anson Dorrance 1997
Bill Killen 1998
Joe Morrone 1999
Bob Gansler 2000
John McKeon 2001
Mel Lorback 2002
Bruce Arena 2003
Tom Fleck 2004
Joe Machnik 2005
Nick Zlatar 2006
Lothar Osiander 2007
Jay Vidovich 2008
Jay Miller 2009
Walter Bahr 2010
Sigi Schmid 2011
Ralph Perez 2012
Jim Lennox 2013
Gene Chyzowych 2014
George Vizvary 2015
Timo Liekoski 2016
Jay Hoffman 2017
John Kowalski 2018
Al Miller 2019
Lincoln Phillips 2020
Jill Ellis 2020
Bob Bradley 2021
Esse Baharmast 2022
Ralph Lundy 2023
Lesle Gallimore 2024
Willy Roy 2025
Tony Meola 2026
Peter Vermes & Tom Durkin 2027
Distinguished Playing Career Award Winners
Landon Donovan 2017
1989 & 1992 Five-a-side Team 2018
Michelle Akers 2019
Rick Davis 2022
1973 Philadelphia Atoms 2023
Paul Caligiuri & Brandi Chastain 2024
1980 U.S. men’s Olympic team 2025
