CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Football Club already has the fans, the coach and its first players, but the team has headed to the next level.
The club added five players to its roster during the 2021 MLS Expansion Draft, trading two of them. CLTFC shose players from other MLS clubs’ unprotected rosters but were limited to picking one player per club.
The picks were announced at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 14 on WSOC-TV, WAXN, and in Spanish on Telemundo Charlotte. The draft show, airing live from Bank of America Stadium, featured live interviews with Charlotte FC Manager Miguel Ángel Ramírez and club president Nick Kelly. Charlotte FC broadcaster Eric Krakauer and former MLS player and current MLS correspondent Calen Carr provided instant analysis after each pick.
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The expansion draft gave CLTFC the chance to add players with MLS experience to their roster from 22 eligible teams.
Charlotte FC Sporting Director Zoran Krneta has labeled this year’s edition as potentially being “the most interesting Expansion Draft in the history of MLS.”
CLTFC season ticket members entered to win a chance to watch the show from behind the scenes in the gallery at Bank of America Stadium.
[SPECTION SECTION: CHARLOTTE FC]
The rules for the draft included the following:
- Five rounds — Charlotte FC may select up to five players from the eligible pool of players, claiming only a single player from any one club.
- Selection clock — Charlotte FC will be permitted three minutes for each selection.
- Timeouts — No timeouts
- Trades — No trades are permitted during the 2021 MLS Expansion Draft.
You can read the complete rules here.
The five new players joined midfielder Jordy Alcívar, defender Adam Armour, midfielder Brandt Bronico, defender Guzmán Corujo, defender Christian Fuchs, midfielder Riley McGree, midfielder Sergio Ruiz, defender Jan Sobociński, and forward Vinicius Mello.
Charlotte FC announced that the Club has also acquired goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega and defender Jaylin Lindsey, as well as midfielder Alan Franco and goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina. Defender Christian Makoun was acquired on Jan. 10 from Inter Miami FC in exchange for Charlotte FC’s top spot in the league’s allocation order. Attacking midfielder Cristian “Titi” Ortiz was added from Club Tijuana in Mexico on loan.
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The team introduced retired MLS star Lloyd Sam to the Club’s local broadcast team as color analyst for English language matches on WSOC-TV and WAXN. Sam has called games for the United Soccer League (USL), MLS NEXT, and Concacaf World Cup Qualifiers. He will join play-by-play announcer Eric Krakauer, who has called games featuring Spain’s La Liga, France’s Ligue 1, the UEFA Champions League and two Copa Libertadores finals.
Charlotte FC also announced Jaime Moreno and Antonio Ramos as the commentators for the Spanish language broadcasts. Moreno will handle play-by-play duties and Ramos will provide color analysis, similar to their concurrent roles as announcers for the Carolina Panthers Spanish Radio Network. Moreno, who is from Mexico City, has been the play-by-play voice of the Panthers Spanish Radio Network since 2010. Ramos, who was born in Veracruz, Mexico, joined Moreno in 2020 as the color analyst.
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Cox Media Group and Charlotte FC:
Cox Media Group, WSOC-TV (ABC Channel 9), WAXN (TV64) and Telemundo Charlotte is the official television partner of the Charlotte Football Club. WSOC-TV and TV64 will be the flagship English language television partners while Telemundo Charlotte will be the team’s local Spanish-speaking television partner.
All regional Charlotte FC regular season matches in 2022 will be available over-the-air to all television households within the Charlotte viewing area, in both English and Spanish.
Full details of Charlotte FC’s inaugural MLS broadcast schedule on WSOC-TV, TV64 and Telemundo Charlotte will be released with the 2022 MLS schedule.
(Watch the preview of Charlotte FC’s draft in the video below)
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