TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Roster Update
FC Cincinnati's offseason is officially underway and the club was the first in MLS to announce their contract decisions for next season.
Victor Ulloa's contract has expired, as is the case for Nazmi Albadawi, while the club declined options on Roland Lamah, Corben Bone and Justin Hoyte. Cincy also declined the options for Emmanuel Ledesma and Jimmy McLaughlin though are in contract negotiations with both players.
“It is never easy to make decisions that affect your players personally at the end of the season,” GM Gerard Nijkamp said in a club statement. “We had to take an evaluative approach after this season and really look hard at who we believe will fit into our system going forward. There were some very tough decisions to be made, but ultimately our goal is put an improved product on the field in 2020."
Cincy picked up the contract options on Rashawn Dally, Nick Hagglund, Jimmy Hague, Ben Lundt, Tommy McCabe and Spencer Richey.
The likes of Fanendo Adi, Fatai Alashe, Frankie Amaya, Leonardo Bertone, Allan Cruz, Mathieu Deplagne, Greg Garza, Andrew Gutman, Joseph-Claude Gyau, Kekuta Manneh, Darren Mattocks, Alvas Powell, Caleb Stanko, Przemysław Tytoń, Maikel van der Werff and Kendall Waston are all already under contract for 2020.
“We wanted to make these decisions for next year known now so that players who will not be back with us next year gain time to find a new playing situation for 2020,” Nijkamp said. “When we begin our three weeks of postseason training next week, we anticipate having those players who could be back with us next year out on the field.”
Cincinnati's first season in MLS was a difficult one as the expansion club finished bottom of the league with just 24 points while setting a new league record for most goals conceded with 75.
