Real Salt Lake protected 11 of players for Tuesday’s MLS expansion draft, the team announced Monday. An additional five players are exempt from selection due to their homegrown status.
The protected players are as follows: Nick Rimando, Justen Glad, Nedum Onuoha, Marcelo Silva, Kyle Beckerman, Damir Kreilach, Pablo Ruiz, Albert Rusnák, Sebastian Saucedo, Joao Plata and Jefferson Savarino.
The five homegrown players are Danilo Acosta, Corey Baird, Jose Hernandez, Aaron Herrera and Brooks Lennon.
With the players RSL protected, there are a host of them that are unprotected, meaning they are available to be acquired by FC Cincinnati through the draft. Those players are Alex Horwath, Andrew Putna, Connor Sparrow, Shawn Barry, Tony Beltran, Nick Besler, Adam Henley, David Horst, Taylor Peay, Demar Phillips, Luke Mulholland, Sunday Stephen, Jordan Allen, Ricky Lopez-Espin and Luis Silva.
Stephen told the Tribune last month that his contract was not renewed for this season and will leave the team. Horst announced his retirement from soccer last week.
FC Cincinnati will start its inaugural season in 2019. Expansion draft rules dictate that an expansion team can only take one player from the other MLS teams in the five-round draft. If a player is taken in the draft, the team that loses a player will receive $50,000 in General Allocation Money.
