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Today is roster compliance day in Major League Soccer (MLS), where every team must meet the roster rules to begin the season. This means that we should see multiple minor deals taking place throughout the day in MLS.
The Vancouver Whitecaps picked up a little extra General Allocation Money ($75,000) from the Montreal Impact today in exchange for an international roster spot through December 31st, 2017.
What a difference a year makes. Last season, the Vancouver Whitecaps were in need of international roster spots. This year, not so much.
To remind everyone, each team is allocated 8 international roster spots each year. The Whitecaps have an additional international slot until December 31st, 2031 from Colorado Rapids, thanks to a 2010 trade of Sanna Nyassi. The Whitecaps also received an international slot, until December 31st, 2017, from the Portland Timbers in the Darren Mattocks trade. However, in acquiring Fredy Montero earlier this month, the Whitecaps had to give up a slot to Minnesota. Still following? With trading away a spot today to Montreal, that leaves the Caps with the original 8 international slots.
The Whitecaps 8 international players are: Matias Laba, David Ousted, Cristian Techera, Yordy Reyna, Kendall Waston, Christian Bolanos, Nicolas Mezquida, and Deybi Flores.
The move today signals that the Whitecaps will not be adding any additional international players to the roster (now or in the summer), despite having 1 position available.