Sporting Re-Sign Kempin and Sinovic, Bring Back Olum

Sporting KC announced the return of two players that were out of contract from the 2015 season as the team announced today that they'd re-signed goalkeeper Jon Kempin and defender Seth Sinovic. The club also announced that they'd reacquired defender/midfielder Lawrence Olum. The Kenyan international had played for KC from 2012 to 2014 leaving KC after the season and joining Kedah FA in the Malaysian Premier League.

Re-signing Kempin and Sinovic aren't huge surprises, both players being from Kansas City certainly is helpful. Kempin earned three starts in 2015 for Kansas City replacing Tim Melia, and also was a substitute in the club's playoff game against the Timbers. The team's first homegrown player has continued to impress when he plays and hopefully in 2016 he'll get the opportunity he really needs, consistent playing time, presumably with the Swope Park Rangers.

Sinovic's return will also give KC a veteran presence on the left wing of KC's defense to go along with the younger Amadou Dia. Sinovic has been as steady as they come at left back for Kansas City for the past few years. Unfortunately his 2015 season was marred by injuries and a concussion that limited him to just 11 games all season. Hopefully a full offseason will allow him to fully recover as he looked to still be carrying some knocks late in the 2015 season. Sinovic's re-signing always seemed the likely path for him, based on his comments after being selected by Montreal in the expansion draft, he had made comments about retiring if he'd been unable to return to KC, so his going through the re-entry draft always seemed to be a stretch. His re-signing will also create an interesting question with Marcel de Jong. With Sinovic and Dia emerging last year, the Canadian international struggled to get time and could find himself on the trade block.

Olum returns to Kansas City from Malaysia, where he spent the last year playing with Kedah FA. He'd played in 83 games across all competitions from 2011 through 2014, including the club's 2012 US Open Cup final and 2013 MLS Cup final. He provides depth for Kansas City at both the defensive midfield position and the center back position. His return is not overly surprising based on the fact that he had been training with the team earlier this fall, was out of contract, and likely comes to KC without a big contract.  On the other side though KC has Amobi Okugo who plays pretty much the exact same position as Olum, and he's already under contract for 2016. Combine that with the fact that KC now have six players (Olum, Okugo, Matt Besler, Kevin Ellis, Ike Opara, and Erik Palmer-Brown) who can all play center back and one has to assume that there will be some movement happening among those six some time before the 2016 season starts.