By Sam Kovzan – SportingKC.com
Goalkeeper Tim Melia announced his retirement from professional soccer today after an accomplished 17-year career highlighted by 10 standout seasons at Sporting Kansas City.
Melia will be formally recognized on Saturday at Children’s Mercy Park during a halftime ceremony when Sporting Kansas City battles archrival St. Louis City SC at 7:30 p.m. CT. Tickets for the match are available at SeatGeek.com.
Melia, 38, is a two-time Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion who helped Sporting to seven playoff appearances from 2015-2024. He retires as the club’s all-time goalkeeping leader in regular season wins (107), saves (746) and shutouts (69) while also ranking fourth in team history in regular season appearances (260), starts (260) and minutes (23,295). Across all competitions, Melia ends his heralded Kansas City tenure with 125 wins and 80 shutouts in 298 matches played, fourth most in club history.
During his decade-long stint with Sporting, Melia established himself as Major League Soccer’s premier penalty kick stopper. His 18 penalty saves in the regular season are second most in MLS history, while his .439 save percentage on penalties (18 of 41) is the highest all-time among keepers with at least 15 penalties faced. In addition, Melia ends his professional career with a perfect 7-0 record in penalty shootouts, including a 5-0 mark at Sporting.
After spending his first five MLS seasons as a backup at Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA, Melia served as a League Pool Goalkeeper during the latter half of 2014. He received an emergency call-up from Sporting in August that year and signed permanently for the club the following offseason. Melia became Sporting’s first-choice goalkeeper by May 2015 and enjoyed the biggest breakthrough of his career, ending the campaign with nine shutouts, a 15-8-5 record in all competitions and his first U.S. Open Cup title as he saved two penalties in the decisive shootout of Sporting’s championship victory over the Philadelphia Union. The New York native was voted the 2015 MLS Comeback Player of the Year, becoming the fourth Sporting player to receive the award.
Melia helped Sporting to the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2016 before reaching new heights in 2017, when he was named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and earned MLS Best XI honors. In a brilliant third season with Sporting, he led MLS in goals against average (0.78) save percentage (78.4%) and penalty saves (three) while placing second in shutouts (10). He also posted three clean sheets in Sporting’s run to the 2017 U.S. Open Cup championship, saving two penalties in a shootout win over the San Jose Earthquakes at the semifinal stage.
Another strong campaign in 2018 saw Melia play every minute of the regular season en route to MLS career-highs in shutouts (13) and wins (18-8-8 record). He once again topped MLS with three saved penalties as Sporting finished first in the Western Conference table and came within one game of MLS Cup. Melia ended the 2019 campaign with a career-high 111 saves in the regular season.
In a shortened 2020 campaign, Melia helped Sporting set a club record with 1.86 points per game and finish atop the conference standings for the fourth time in 10 seasons. He delivered a vintage performance in the opening round of the 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs by saving all three penalty kicks he faced in a shootout win over San Jose at Children’s Mercy Park. In 2021, he eclipsed double-digit wins for the seventh consecutive regular season, adding 14 more victories as Sporting reached the postseason for the 10th time in 11 years.
After missing the early stages of 2023 through injury, Melia helped Sporting rebound from a slow start and rally into the MLS Cup Playoffs. He posted another shootout win against San Jose in the Wild Card Round to set up a best-of-3 series with archrival St. Louis City SC. Melia and Sporting swept aside their fierce adversaries in two games, becoming just the second No. 8 seed to oust a No. 1 seed in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
Melia’s final season in 2024 saw him named Sporting’s Defensive Player of the year for the third time, following the 2018 and 2019 seasons. He saved three of the five penalties he faced over the course of the year, including one against LAFC in his final appearance on Oct. 9 at Children’s Mercy Park. Melia also made three starts in the U.S. Open Cup as Sporting reached its first cup final in seven years, narrowly falling at LAFC in extra time.
Born in Great River, New York, Melia attended East Islip High School and played two years of college soccer at SUNY Oneonta before transferring to Lynn University in 2006, where he played his junior and senior seasons. In 2008, he began his professional journey with a two-year stint at the Rochester Rhinos in the USL First Division, highlighted by his role in the team’s unlikely run to the 2009 Open Cup semifinals.
In 2010, Melia joined reigning MLS Cup champions Real Salt Lake and spent part of the season on loan in the USL Second Division with the Charleston Battery, leading the team to a first-place finish and the league title with eight saves in the championship match. He joined Chivas USA in 2012, making a combined nine saves in his first two MLS appearances and propelling his team to the Open Cup semifinals.
Away from the field, Melia has engaged supporters at fan events across Kansas City and participated in numerous endeavors tied to The Victory Project—the club’s philanthropic foundation dedicated to helping children affected by cancer and all of life’s challenges—and made numerous visits to Children’s Mercy Hospital to interact with youth patients and their families. Melia lives in Overland Park, Kansas, with his wife Kristen and their three children: Rowan (7), Fynn (5) and Lylan (3).
