BRIDGEVIEW, Ill.(Dec. 10, 2018) – The Chicago Fire Soccer Club announced today its list of protected players in advance of the 2018 MLS Expansion Draft. Scheduled to take place on Tuesday, Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. CT, the Expansion Draft will provide FC Cincinnati with an opportunity to select up to five players in preparation for its inaugural MLS campaign in 2019. Once one player has been selected from a team’s unprotected roster, that team may not lose any further players.
The following Chicago Fire players are exempt from selection in the Expansion Draft:
Protected Players (11): Brandt Bronico, Diego Campos, Michael de Leeuw, Raheem Edwards, Fabian Herbers, Johan Kappelhof, Aleksandar Katai, Dax McCarty, Nemanja Nikolic, Matt Polster, Bastian Schweinsteiger
Automatically Protected (4): Mo Adams (Generation adidas), Drew Conner (Homegrown Player), Grant Lillard (Homegrown Player), Djordje Mihailovic (Homegrown Player)
The following players are available for selection:
Unprotected Players (11): Jonathan Campbell, Stefan Cleveland, Elliot Collier, Jorge Corrales, Nicolas Del Grecco, Nicolas Hasler, Daniel Johnson, Patrick McLain, Yura Movsisyan, Richard Sanchez, Luis Solignac
In advance of the 2018 MLS Expansion Draft, current MLS clubs were able to protect 11 players from their 2018 roster, with the five teams that had players selected by the Los Angeles Football Club in the 2017 MLS Expansion Draft exempt from this year’s draft (Columbus Crew SC, San Jose Earthquakes, Seattle Sounders FC, Sporting Kansas City and Toronto FC). Generation adidas players (who did not graduate at the end of the 2018 season) and Homegrown Players on a club’s off-budget roster are automatically protected and do not count against a team’s 11 protected roster spots.
Since 2014, each round of expansion has involved two incoming clubs selecting from the eligible player list. Therefore, for the competitive consistency of the MLS Expansion Draft process, LAFC and FC Cincinnati are considered a single round of expansion. LAFC players will be eligible for selection this year by FC Cincinnati.
For the full 2018 MLS Expansion Draft guidelines, click here.
