Rangers Sign Three More, Including Academy Product

The Swope Park Rangers continue to build their roster ahead of their inaugural season in the USL this season as today the club announced the signing of three more players. These three signings bring the total up to eight under contract for 2016 and in a bonus move for a team that should be seen more for development, they lowered the average age of the team to 22.75. Two of the three come from MLS academy sides, one of which is Kansas City's.

First is Alex Molano who comes to KC from Dallas City FC of the NPSL, the American fourth tier. Molano has experience in Europe having played in Croatia for Dinamo Zagreb and NK Vrapce with stops at Bodens BK in Sweden after each stint with a Croatian team. The 23 year old though started his career in the FC Dallas academy and has represented the United States at the U20 level. He was a part of the Rangers open tryouts last month.

The second player to come from an academy is Nansel Selbol, from Sporting KC's academy. Selbol joins the Rangers directly from Sporting KC's U18 team. The 18 year old has scored 10 goals in eight appearances for the academy team since joining in September of 2015, including a hattrick in his debut. Selbol is a native of Nigeria and was on the preliminary roster for Nigeria's 2013 U17 World Cup team which Nigeria won. Of the three this might be the move that excites me the most. KC's academy hasn't produce a lot of MLS talent for the first team with just three signings, but the idea that KC's academy could really start turning out players, even if they start with the Rangers is exciting. He becomes the second Sporting academy graduate to join the Rangers following the club's first signing, Christian Duke.

The final of the three signings, Jacob VanCompernolle comes to the Rangers from the USL already as he spent the 2015 season with Sporting KC's USL affiliate, the Oklahoma City Energy. VanCompernolle appeared in 25 games for the Energy and at 22 is still a relatively young player.

Overall these are three solid signings that will continue to help the Rangers build towards the next season while always having an eye towards the first team.