A forward in the U.S. national team early in his career who later was an outstanding defender in MLS.
Vermes played 67 full internationals for the United States between 1988 and 1997, including eight of the United States’ 10 World Cup qualifiers in 1988 and 1989 and all three of its World Cup games in 1990. He starred in some of the United States’ biggest victories of the late 1980s and early 1990s, including the 1989 win over Trinidad that clinched a World Cup place and the 1991 upset of Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup semifinals. He scored the United States’ second goal of the latter game, one of 11 goals he scored in full internationals. He also played for the United States in the 1988 Olympic Games, and was chosen as the USSF male athlete of the year that year..
Vermes was among the first American professional players in Europe, starting in 1988 with one season at Raba ETO in Hungary, the country where his parents were born. He later played a season with Volendam in the first division in Holland and one with Figueras in the second division in Spain.
He played seven seasons in MLS between 1996 and 2002 for MetroStars, Colorado and Kansas City, and won an MLS championship with Kansas City in 2000, a season in which he also was chosen as an MLS all-star and the league’s outstanding defender.
Vermes played 184 MLS regular-season games and 25 MLS playoff games. Besides his years in MLS and Europe, he also played one season in the ASL and one season in the NPSL.
Inducted in 2013.
