Six Sporting Kansas City nominees revealed for MLS All-Star fan ballot

Major League Soccer revealed today the six Sporting Kansas City nominees among the 115 players who were nominated for the 2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game fan ballot by a panel of media members. Sporting Kansas City's representatives are defender Matt Besler, forward Claudio Bieler, defender Aurelien Collin, goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, midfielder Oriol Rosell and midfielder Graham Zusi.

All Sporting Kansas City players will be eligible for consideration in later phases of the MLS All-Star selection process, including coach, commissioner and player selections. 

Fan voting begins today and continues through July 2 online at MLSSoccer.com and via text, by messaging the player's last name to 22442. Twitter voting will take place on June 20 and June 21.The 10 players with the highest combined votes from these three methods will be named to the All-Star Fan XI, to be unveiled during halftime of Sporting Kansas City's match at the Chicago Fire on July 7 live on ESPN.

The 11th player -- a forward -- on the Fan XI will be decided as part of the AT&T MLS All-Star 'In the Game' Challenge. Among remaining forwards on the ballot, the player with whom fans score the most goals in EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer 13 Ultimate Teamfrom July 3-10 will be named to the Fan XI and revealed on July 11.

Visit SportingKC.com/asg for all the latest on the 2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game, including voting information.

Sporting Park will host the 2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game at 8 p.m. CT on July 31, featuring international opponent AS Roma from Italy's Serie A and nationally televised live on ESPN2 and UniMas in the United States. Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes will serve as the MLS All-Stars head coach and will choose the game day roster, to be announced on July 15 along with MLS Commissioner Don Garber's two selections, and starting lineup for the marquee match.

A total of 32 All-Stars (four goalkeepers, eight defenders, 13 midfielders and seven forwards) will be named per the collective bargaining agreement, with MLS player voting determining those named to the inactive roster announced on July 31.

Last year, Sporting Kansas City's five MLS All-Star selections were tied for most of any team and matched the most chosen in club history along with the 1997 and 2000 seasons. See the full list of Sporting KC's all-time MLS All-Stars below:

Sporting KC All-Stars (1996-2012)