Sporting Kansas City announced on Wednesday that the following players will be out of contract with the club as of Dec. 31, 2015: Jon Kempin, Mikey Lopez, Soni Mustivar, Paulo Nagamura and Seth Sinovic. The club will extend offers to each of those players and contract negotiations are ongoing.
Additionally, Sporting KC has picked up contract options on the following players: Saad Abdul-Salaam, Amadou Dia, Kevin Ellis, Benny Feilhaber, Connor Hallisey, Jimmy Medranda, Tim Melia, Chance Myers, Krisztian Nemeth, Ike Opara, Erik Palmer-Brown and Jordi Quintilla.
Sporting Kansas City currently has 20 players under contract for next year. That includes those players whose options were picked up as well as players already under contract for next year: Bernardo Anor, Matt Besler, Marcel de Jong, Dom Dwyer, Roger Espinoza, Amobi Okugo, Jacob Peterson and Graham Zusi.
Jalil Anibaba’s 2016 contract option was declined. The 27-year-old defender is eligible to participate in Major League Soccer’s Re-Entry Draft. Stage One of the Re-Entry Draft is Dec. 11 with Stage Two set for Dec. 17.
Sporting Kansas City has the No. 11 pick in the Re-Entry Draft as well as the 2016 MLS SuperDraft, which will be held Jan. 14, 2016, in Baltimore. Sporting KC will spend both phases of the 2016 preseason in Tucson, first reporting from Jan. 24 – Feb. 8 and then returning for the Desert Diamond Cup from Feb. 17-27.
