The Columbus Crew announced today that it has exercised the contract options on 14 players from the 2011 roster, while six others were already under contract for next year, giving the club a roster that currently features 20 players.
The Black & Gold simultaneously announced that it has declined the contract options of goalkeeper Alex Riggs; midfielders Kevin Burns, Santiago Prim, Dejan Rusmir and Ben Sippola; and forwards Jeff Cunningham and Andres Mendoza.
Cunningham and Burns will be eligible for the MLS Re-Entry Process which begins next week. A full list of players eligible for the Re-Entry Process will be announced by MLS this Wednesday, Nov. 30.
Rusmir and Prim were formally waived by the Crew but were not selected off of waivers last week and are not eligible for the Re-Entry Process.
Midfielders Robbie Rogers and Emmanuel Ekpo are out of contract and the Crew has extended qualifying offers to both players.
Eddie Gaven and Julius James both signed extensions earlier in 2011 while the contracts of defender Sebastian Miranda, as well as Generation adidas players Dilly Duka and Tony Tchani and Homegrown product Aaron Horton were all guaranteed.
The Crew’s current roster follows:
Goalkeepers (2): Andy Gruenebaum, William Hesmer
Defenders (7): Shaun Francis, Eric Gehrig, Julius James, Chad Marshall, Sebastian Miranda, Korey Veeder, Josh Williams
Midfielders (7): Bernardo Anor, Rich Balchan, Dilly Duka, Eddie Gaven, Cole Grossman, Danny O’Rourke, Tony Tchani
Forwards (4): Tom Heinemann, Aaron Horton, Justin Meram, Emilio Renteria
