Rapids Sign Youngest Homegrown Player In Team History

Big news out of Commerce City today as the Rapids signed 18 year old Sam Vines as their newest Homegrown Player.  Vines is an outside defender that has played at every level of the U.S. youth teams other than the U-23s and was named to the National Development Academy Best XI last year.  He is expected to play wingback in Hudson's system, adding some extra depth at that position.  At 18 he's also the youngest Homegrown Signing in team history.

Also today it was reported that Nana Boateng and Stefan Aigner have returned home (to Ghana and Germany respectively) to complete the process of gaining their green cards.  This is a big move for the club in two ways.  First of all for 2018 this immediately puts us into roster compliance once the process is complete as the team is two over on internationals.  That means the team has the option to not loan Wynne out if they want.  If Badji is also able to get his it would give us an open spot.  In the past MLS has shown some willingness to bend the rules around roster compliance and internationals as well if a chance in status is imminent.  That means that even if these cards aren't complete by mid-next week when the roster compliance date is hit the Rapids will likely not be forced to make any move to become compliant.  The one downside is that with them out of the country they won't be available for Leg 2 of the CCL in Toronto on Tuesday.

The other reason this is a big move for the club is that Aigner has been here barely 6 months and Boateng a little over a year.  We've seen other teams, notably Seattle, move quickly in getting green cards for players but these would be the fastest green cards in club history I believe.  The green card process does not require a minimum amount of time but it does take several months to process and, in the case of applying for one through employment and not family, support from the employer.  This quickness of these two applications is another indicator of the change in the Front Office.  I wonder if the addition of Ena Patel has helped with this as this seems to fall into her sphere as Director of Player Personnel (obviously to be at this point already the process had to have started before her hiring but I'm sure her presences has helped).  Regardless its a positive sign that the club is taking this step now, especially compared to the past when there were cases (such as Ballouchy) where we'd see paperwork issues never prioritized for fixing/completing.

The roster list below has been updated with both pieces of news today.  We now have 29 of 30 roster spots filled (not counting Da Fonte) and all 8 international slots filled.  We do have an open DP slot.

Signed Players:
* = international
HG = homegrown
DP = designated player

GK Andrew Dykstra
GK Tm Howard - DP
GK Zac MacMath
D Edgar Castillo
D Kip Colvey
D Kortne Ford - HG
D Marlon Hairston
D Eric Miller
D Axel Sjoberg
D Tommy Smith*
D Sam Vines - HG
D Jared Watts
D Danny Wilson*
D Deklan Wynne*
M Bismark Adjei-Boateng
M Stefan Aigner
M Michael Azira
M Johan Blomberg*
M Shkelzen Gashi* - DP
M Sam Hamilton
M Enzo Martinez
M Ricardo Perez - HG
M Jack Price*
M Dillon Serna - HG
F Dominique Badji*
F Caleb Calvert - HG
F Niki Jackson
F Joe Mason*
F Jack McBean