de Jong signs with Ottawa

It did not take long for former Sporting Kansas City defender Marcel de Jong to find a team. The Ottawa Fury FC of the NASL announced Wednesday that they had acquired the Canadian international Marcel de Jong, just a day after he was released by Sporting KC. In reality Sporting KC released him so he could sign with Ottawa.

Just a numbers game

Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes explained the release, "We've got Dia, got Seth, it just wound up being too many guys in the same position."

In 15 appearances for Sporting KC, de Jong had one goal and an assist and could never lay claim to the left back spot. With the rise of the rookie outside backs Amadou Dia and Saad Abdul-Salaam ($50,000 and $60,000 base salaries) and Seth Sinovic (base salary $140,000) being reliable when he was not injured, de Jong's base salary of $180.000 became an unneeded expense.

"He didn't necessarily fit in so well to how we wanted to play," Vermes added later in the interview. "It's a combination of things, if he had been great for us maybe we look at it differently. He just didn't fit into the way we wanted to play."

When asked if Sporting KC had looked into trading de Jong within the league, Vermes replied, "We looked into it but this situation seemed to be the best solution."