Atlanta United announces 2022 year-end roster moves

Atlanta United announced its annual collection of year-end roster moves that see the somewhat surprising departure of Ronaldo Cisneros, while the club exercised an option to keep Ozzie Alonso who missed almost the entire season after tearing his ACL in the team’s fifth league game of the year.

Here is the club’s press release this morning:

Atlanta United today announced its year-end roster moves ahead of the 2023 MLS season. In addition to the 24 players already under contract for 2023, the club exercised contract options on Ozzie Alonso, George Campbell, Jackson Conway, Aiden McFadden, Miles Robinson, Matheus Rossetto and Juanjo Purata.

The club declined contract options on Dylan Castanheira, Raúl Gudiño and Bryce Washington.

Mikey Ambrose, Alex De John and Amar Sejdić are out of contract. The club remains in active discussions with Sejdić.

The loans for Ronaldo Cisneros and Rocco Ríos Novo expire at the end of the calendar year.

Players under contract for 2023 (24): Thiago Almada, Luiz Araújo, Ezequiel Barco, Erik Centeno, Machop Chol, Noah Cobb, Dom Dwyer, Ajani Fortune, Alan Franco, Justin Garces, Andrew Gutman, Brad Guzan, Ronald Hernández, Emerson Hyndman, Franco Ibarra, Brooks Lennon, Erik López, Josef Martínez, Efrain Morales, Marcelino Moreno, Edwin Mosquera, Santiago Sosa, Caleb Wiley, Tyler Wolff

Option exercised (7): Ozzie Alonso, George Campbell, Jackson Conway, Aiden McFadden, Miles Robinson, Matheus Rossetto, Juanjo Purata

Option declined (3): Dylan Castanheira, Raúl Gudiño, Bryce Washington

Players out of contract (3): Mikey Ambrose, Alex De John, Amar Sejdic

End of loan (2): Ronaldo Cisneros, Rocco Ríos Novo

We will have more details on this story in the coming days after Technical Director Carlos Bocanegra speaks with media Monday at 1 p.m.

Initial thoughts

• It’s a bit of a surprise to see Ronaldo Cisneros leave (and jusfing by the team’s farewell tweet to him on Twitter, it doesn’t appear that he will be engaged in negotiations like Sejdic). That said, it’s not like he performed as well as anyone would have hoped on the field. It just seemed like he was a “glue guy” that Gonzalo Pineda liked and would want to keep around.
• The goalkeeping position is likely to be addressed this offseason as the room has completely cleared out except for Brad Guzan. Guzan seems to be on agood pace to return on the earliest possible timeframe given his brutal Achilles injury, though it remains to be seen how aggressively the club will spend at the position given the uncertainty around Atlanta United’s captain.
• Let’s all hope the deal with Sejdic gets done. These are not always givens, as we saw last offseason when the club was in negotiations with Alec Kann, who ended up signing elsewhere. Sejdic proved himself as a reliable midfielder that can eat up minutes without much of a dropoff in midfield.
• Ozzie Alonso returning is a feel-good story. He remained close to the team last year despite missing so much time and being out of the spotlight. He should have a good bond with most of the squad, and if his body will allow it, he’ll play an important role for the team next season.