No single person made Kansas City the international soccer destination it is today. Powered by a diverse group and fueled by a love of the beautiful game, soccer is now played in neighborhoods across the city.
Today, the city has professional men’s teams: Sporting Kansas City and the Kansas City Comets. The city is also the first in the world to build a stadium exclusively for its professional women’s team, the Kansas City Current.
Kansas City is honored to be a host city for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and to be part of the world’s largest sporting event. This exhibition of historic photographs is based on the KCUR 89.3 podcast A People’s History of Kansas City and invites guests to participate in this chapter of Kansas City’s soccer story and to learn more about what led to this historic moment.