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The Swope Park Rangers have six players on their roster for the 2017 season, the team announced on Monday afternoon.
The Rangers exercised the team options on Christian Duke, Amer Didic, Mark Anthony Gonzales and Nansel Selbol. In addition, they signed a new contract with Oumar Ballo and already had midfielder Kevin Oliveira under contract.
“All the players that we are bringing back are players that we think can eventually move up to Sporting Kansas City,” Swope Park Rangers head coach Nikola Popovic said in the press release. “It only makes sense to keep players that can one day become first-team players, and all of them have the technical and tactical quality. On top of that, they can be flags of our culture - they showed last year through their behaviors that they are headed for success.”
Ballo and Duke are the oldest players on the team at age 25, while the remaining four players are all 21 years old or younger, and could be a part of the future for Sporting Kansas City.