CHICAGO (Dec. 12, 2016) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced Monday its 11 protected players in advance of the 2016 MLS Expansion Draft on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 1 p.m. CT. The draft, which will be streamed live on MLSsoccer.com, will consist of five rounds as expansion sides Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC will select five players each from MLS’ other 20 teams.
Each current MLS club had the opportunity to protect 11 players from their 2016 roster. Homegrown Players on a club’s off-budget roster are automatically protected and do not count against a team’s 11 protected roster spots. Designated Players are not automatically protected. If a Designated Player has a no trade clause in his contract, then the club must protect him in the Expansion Draft.
Once one player has been selected from a team’s unprotected roster, that team may not lose any further players (all additional players from that team become ineligible for selection).
Additional information on the 2016 MLS Expansion Draft can be found here.
Below is the list of the 25 Fire players:
Protected (11): David Accam, Arturo Alvarez, Jonathan Campbell, Michael de Leeuw, John Goossens, Johan Kappelhof, Matt Lampson, Joao Meira, Matt Polster, Luis Solignac, Brandon Vincent
Available for selection (10): David Arshakyan, Razvan Cocis, Eric Gehrig, Michael Harrington, Nick LaBrocca, Patrick McLain, Alex Morrell, Michael Stephens, Rodrigo Ramos, Khaly Thiam
Homegrown (4): Joey Calistri, Drew Conner, Patrick Doody, Collin Fernandez
