Designated Player Bryan Rochez, defender David Mateos and midfielder Devron Garcia won’t be back with Orlando City for the 2017 season, team head coach Jason Kreis told the Orlando Sentinel.
None of the three players trained with the team in Orlando at the start of preseason and all were left behind when the club moved to Jacksonville, Florida, last week for a 10-day camp. Kreis told the Sentinel’s Alicia DelGallo on Wednesday that the club doesn’t “believe any of those players have a future at Orlando City.”
“We’ve been trying to work with those players the entire offseason,” Kreis told the Sentinel. “During end-of-season meetings with those players we made it clear there wasn’t really a future for them in our club, and we tried to work with those players, have those players work with their agents, as well as us. A lot of work was put in the offseason to try to find them better solutions or different solutions, whether that be in the league or outside of the league, and we haven’t found answers.”
Rochez joined Orlando ahead of the 2015 season as a Young Designated Player, but failed to make any sort of significant impact with the first team. Mateos was an expensive part of a back line that allowed 60 goals last season, while Garcia failed to make a single MLS appearance for the Lions.
Additional perspective from Kreis can be found in the full Orlando Sentinel piece.
