Chicago City Wire

Chicago Fire FC has announced its list of protected players ahead of the 2024 MLS Expansion Draft. The draft, scheduled for December 11 at 9:30 p.m. CT, will allow San Diego FC to select up to five players as it prepares for its debut in the MLS in 2025. The event will be streamed live on SanDiegoFC.com.

The following Chicago Fire players are exempt from selection in the Expansion Draft:

Protected Players (12): midfielder Kellyn Acosta, forward Tom Barlow, forward Hugo Cuypers, defender Jonathan Dean, defender Andrew Gutman, midfielder Maren Haile-Selassie, forward Georgios Koutsias, midfielder Chris Mueller, midfielder Federico Navarro, midfielder Mauricio Pineda, defender Tobias Salquist, and defender Carlos Terán.

Homegrown Exempt Players (7): forward Victor Bezerra, goalkeeper Chris Brady, midfielder Javier Casas Jr., midfielder Brian Gutiérrez, midfielder Sergio Oregel Jr., defender Justin Reynolds, and forward Missael Rodríguez.

The unprotected players available for selection include:

Unprotected Players (12): defender Allan Arigoni, defender Rafael Czichos, goalkeeper Bryan Dowd, goalkeeper Jeff Gal, defender Chase Gasper, midfielder Gastón Giménez, midfielder Fabian Herbers, midfielder Ariel Lassiter, defender Wyatt Omsberg, goalkeeper Spencer Richey, defender Arnaud Souquet and midfielder Laurence Wootton.

Eligible player lists for the Expansion Draft include participants from all 29 MLS clubs. Each club had the opportunity to protect up to 12 players from their roster. Once a player is selected from a team's unprotected roster during the draft process that team cannot lose any further players. Generation adidas players occupying Roster Slots 21-24 and Homegrown Players aged 25 years or younger are automatically protected under draft rules.

For more details on the complete rules governing the 2024 MLS Expansion Draft please refer to official resources provided by Chicago Fire FC Communications.