Sporting KC Announce Expansion Draft Protected List

Ahead of tomorrow’s MLS expansion draft for San Diego FC, MLS teams announced the list of players that they would be protecting for the draft. Sporting Kansas City announced their list of protected players as well. The list includes ten of the twelve that were protected on our list here last week.

Goalkeepers: Ryan Schewe
Defenders: Joaquin Fernandez, Tim Leibold, Logan Ndenbe, Dany Rosero, Robert Voloder
Midfielders: Zorhan Bassong, Memo Rodriguez, Erik Thommy
Forwards: Stephen Afrifa, William Agada, Alenis Vargas

Sporting also has four players that are automatically protected as they are Homegrown Players under the age of 25: Ozzie Cisneros, Jake Davis, Ian James, and John Pulskamp. James is on the list as he was formally added to the roster in 2024 while Jack Kortkamp’s contract doesn’t start until 2025 so he is not on the list.

That leaves eleven players available for selection in the draft, though only four of those players are currently under contract for 2025, the rest are players who are out of contract or had their options declined. Here’s the list of players available for select: Robert Castellanos, Danny Flores, Andreu Fontas, Tim Melia, Alan Pulido, Nemanja Radoja, Chris Rindov, Johnny Russell, Daniel Salloi, Khiry Shelton and Remi Walter.

Only four of those players: Pulido, Radoja, Salloi, and Shelton are under contract for the team next season.  Three of those four were Designated Players for Sporting during the 2024 season. The likelihood of any of the four being selected seems small given their salaries: Pulido $3.9m, Radoja $1.5m, Salloi $1.3m, and Shelton $750K.

San Diego will make five selections, no more than one player from any team will be taken. The draft takes place tomorrow, December 11th, at 9:30PM Central Time and will be livestreamed on San Diego’s website.