San Diego FC continues roster build in 2024 MLS Expansion Draft
12/12/2024 07:22 AM
The latest MLS expansion team added a few more names to the roster on Wednesday night through the league's Expansion Draft mechanism which allows San Diego FC to select five eligible players from other MLS clubs.
Each MLS club is allowed to protect 12 of their players from selection in addition to other restrictions such as Generation Adidas players and Homegrown players under the age of 25.
Although many big-name players including DPs such as Hector Herrera and Lorenzo Insigne are often left unprotected by their clubs, such selections are extremely rare as teams would rather sign their own designated players. Instead, expansion drafts tend to focus on undervalued contracts where domestic players can be signed for cheap sums.
Each club also gauges its interest in draft-eligible players in case they become interested in setting up a trade with SDFC. Only one player can be selected from a single team and each club with a player selected will receive $50,000 of General Allocation Money in compensation.
Here is who San Diego decided to pick:
- Heine Gikling Bruseth (Orlando City SC)
The first pick of the 2024 MLS Expansion Draft was the most surprising pick of the lot. Heine Gilling Bruseth is a 20-year-old Norwegian youth international midfielder who arrived at Orlando City as a U22 initiative player just this past summer.
Despite failing to make an appearance yet for Orlando in his short time, Bruseth is seen as a creative player with quality vision and lots of room to improve. The uncertainty makes his selection the riskiest in the draft but Bruseth already has 45 first-team appearances under his belt and will be looking to make a name for himself when San Diego kicks off their inaugural season in 2025.
Bruseth earned $217,471 in guaranteed compensation in 2024 according to MLSPA.
2. Hamady Diop (Charlotte FC)
After being selected with the #1 overall pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft, Diop saw less than 100 first-team minutes before spending some time in MLS Next Pro and eventually being sent on loan to Serbia.
Nonetheless, the 22-year-old Senegalese central defender still has talent that SDFC believes can be developed into a useful squad piece. Diop is strong in the air at six feet tall with the athleticism to become a quality rotational player in MLS, or perhaps more down the line.
Diop earned $97,216 in guaranteed compensation in 2024 according to MLSPA.
3. Jasper Löffelsend (Colorado Rapids)
With the third pick in the 2024 MLS Expansion Draft, San Diego FC followed all the unwritten rules. In Jasper Löffelsend, SDFC selected a player who meets all of the traditional criteria as a rotational domestic player on a cheap contract who brings versatility to the roster.
Traditionally a midfielder, Löffelsend is defensively minded with the ability to play fullback. He is strong in ground duels and covers lots of grass no matter his position. Although Löffelsend only started two of 19 appearances for Colorado this season, San Diego will likely be looking to return him to the 19 starts (31 appearances) or 15 starts (21 appearances) he had in 2022 and 2023 respectively for Real Salt Lake.
Löffelsend earned $255,833 in guaranteed compensation in 2024 according to MLSPA.
- Thiago Andrade (New York City FC)
Remember how I said every MLS club will be assessing the expansion draft for players they might be interested in? That's right. It's trade time.
First up, 24-year-old Brazilian forward Thiago Andrade is set for a return to MLS play after spending the last two seasons on loan Athletico Paranaense (Brazil) and Shenzhen Peng City (China). Before his loans, Andrade recorded 12 goals and 5 assists in 71 matches from 2021-24 for New York City FC.
Now, Toronto FC will hope they can turn Andrade's deep runs behind opponents’ back lines into goals and assists once again. In exchange for Andrade, San Diego will receive the No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft, $250k in conditional GAM, and a sell-on fee for any future transfer abroad.
Andrade earned $219,600 in guaranteed compensation in 2024 according to MLSPA.
- Hosei Kijima (St. Louis CITY SC)
Lastly, Hosei Kijima was also leveraged in a trade by SDFC, moving the player on to D.C. United in exchange for $400k in 2025 GAM.
The 22-year-old versatile Japanese attacker had an impressive debut season in 2024 with St. Louis CITY SC, bouncing back and forth between the first and second team, including a 90th-minute winner against Houston Dynamo in the Concacaf Champions Cup with his first professional goal. Soon after he added his first MLS goal and assist.
D.C. United clearly expects the trajectory of the No. 17 overall pick in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft to continue to rise while San Diego appreciates the additional roster flexibility of $400k GAM.
Kijima earned $71,401 in guaranteed compensation in 2024 according to MLSPA.
