The 2012 defender of the year, Besler, had offers from England, including Queen's Park Rangers, Birmingham City, and Southampton, as well as a Belgian club, apparently KAA Gent but turned them down, instead choosing to return to his home town team, Sporting. The contract though will lock up Besler in KC for at least a few more years and should see him get a bit of a pay raise as well.
Getting Besler re-signed had to be a massive priority for the offseason for KC. Losing Besler along with Roger Espinoza, and the release of Julio Cesar would have been a big blow to KC's defense after a record breaking year for them. Besler's solid, steady play allowed Aurelien Collin to take risks with his play as Besler was there to cover. His play has also earned him national team attention, earning a call up for the friendly against Mexico earlier this year and calls for him to get a further look in the January camp as well as potential call ups for qualifiers. The re-signing, along with the trade for Benny Feilhaber gives KC five players (Teal Bunbury, CJ Sapong, and Graham Zusi the other 3) to receive national team call ups in the last year. Add in Peter Joseph's Haiti call ups, Kei Kamara's Sierra Leone call ups, and even Lawrence Olum being invited into camp with Kenya and there are a number of international players on KC's roster. Which could certainly be a challenge come the summer with internationals matches and the Gold Cup.
But this was an absolute must move for KC. While Olum is a decent back up, he's not a long term starter and losing Besler would have pushed him into that role. Now KC keeps their defense together while keeping one of the faces of the team and the city on the roster
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