SANDY, Utah (Monday, December 10, 2018) – Real Salt Lake has announced the 11 players on the club’s Protected Player list in advance of the 2018 MLS Expansion Draft, taking place this Tuesday, December 11. FC Cincinnati will select five players with no club losing more than one player to the expansion side.
The following 11 RSL players will not be eligible for selection by Cincinnati when Major League Soccer’s newest club makes its selections:
GK Nick Rimando
DF Justen Glad
DF Nedum Onuoha
DF Marcelo Silva
MF Kyle Beckerman
MF Damir Kreilach
MF Pablo Ruiz
MF Albert Rusnák
MF Sebastian Saucedo
FW Joao Plata
FW Jefferson Savarino
In addition to those 11 players, Homegrown Players DF Danilo Acosta, FW Corey Baird, MF Jose Hernandez, DF Aaron Herrera and DF/FW Brooks Lennon are exempt from the draft and cannot be selected. Glad, Saucedo and DF/FW Jordan Allen are products of RSL’s Academy, too, but are no longer exempt from the Expansion Draft because they were listed on RSL’s senior roster in 2018.
With the Protected Player list established, this means that the following players under contract in 2018 with Real Salt Lake will be available for selection by FCC:
Goalkeepers: Alex Horwath, Andrew Putna, Connor Sparrow
Defenders: Shawn Barry, Tony Beltran, Nick Besler, Adam Henley, David Horst, Taylor Peay, Demar Phillips
Midfielders: Luke Mulholland, Sunny
Forwards: Jordan Allen, Ricky Lopez-Espin, Luis Silva
Real Salt Lake History in MLS Expansion Drafts
2006: Toronto FC – Jason Kreis selected (re-acquired by RSL in exchange for allocation money)
2007: San Jose Earthquakes – no RSL player selected
2008: Seattle Sounders FC – Nathan Sturgis selected
2009: Philadelphia Union – no RSL player selected (RSL traded Chris Seitz to Union in exchange for allocation money on eve of expansion draft)
2010: Portland Timbers/Vancouver Whitecaps FC – Portland selected Robbie Findley and David Horst
2011: Montreal Impact – Collen Warner selected
2014: New York City FC/Orlando City SC – NYCFC selected Ned Grabavoy and Chris Wingert
2016: Minnesota United/Atlanta United – Minnesota selected Jeff Attinella
* Prior to its inaugural 2005 campaign, Real Salt Lake selected Andy Williams, D.J. Countess, Pablo Brenes, Brian Kamler, Nelson Akwari, Chris Brown, Matt Behncke, Rusty Pierce, Kevin Ara and Erick Scott in the 2004 MLS Expansion Draft on November 19, 2004.
