CHICAGO (Dec. 13, 2021) – Chicago Fire FC today announced its list of protected players in advance of the 2021 MLS Expansion Draft.
Scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Dec. 14 at 6:00 p.m. CT, the Expansion Draft will provide Charlotte FC with an opportunity to select up to five players in advance of its inaugural MLS campaign in 2022. Once one player has been selected from a team’s unprotected roster, that team cannot lose any further players.
The following Chicago Fire players are exempt from selection in the Expansion Draft:
Protected Players (12): forward Ignacio Aliseda, defender Jonathan Bornstein, defender Jhon Espinoza, midfielder Gastón Giménez, midfielder Fabian Herbers, midfielder Stanislav Ivanov, defender Miguel Navarro, midfielder Federico Navarro, forward Chinonso Offor, defender Wyatt Omsberg, defender Boris Sekulić and defender Carlos Terán.
Homegrown Exempt Players (11): goalkeeper Chris Brady, midfielder Javier Casas Jr., midfielder Brian Gutiérrez, midfielder Alex Monis, midfielder Sergio Oregel Jr., defender/midfielder Mauricio Pineda, defender Andre Reynolds II, midfielder Allan Rodríguez, forward Missael Rodríguez, goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina and defender Nicholas Slonina.
The following players are available for selection:
Unprotected Players (8): forward Robert Berić, defender Francisco Calvo, midfielder Elliot Collier, defender Johan Kappelhof, goalkeeper Kenneth Kronholm, midfielder Álvaro Medrán, goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth and midfielder Luka Stojanović.
The Expansion Draft eligible player list includes players from 22 MLS clubs. All 22 clubs had the opportunity to protect up to 12 players from their roster. MLS Homegrown Players ages 25 and under (those born during or after 1996), as well as Generation adidas players that did not graduate from the program following the 2021 season are automatically protected, therefore clubs did not need to use one of their 12 selections to protect them.
The following five Clubs are exempt from this year’s draft after having a player selected by Austin FC in the 2020 MLS Expansion Draft: San Jose Earthquakes, New York Red Bulls, Nashville SC, LA Galaxy and Orlando City SC.
Complete rules for the 2021 MLS Expansion Draft are available here.
