Hartford Athletic Announce Initial Roster Moves for 2025
At least twelve players from the 2024 season will return for Brendan Burke's second season
Hartford Athletic announced yesterday that the following players are still under contract for the 2025 season: forwards Deshane Beckford, Mamadou Dieng and Michee Ngalina; midfielders Marlon Hairston, Beverly Makangila and Jay Chapman; defenders Joe Farrell, Jordan Scarlett, Pele Osmanu and Emmanuel Samadia; and goalkeepers Renan Ribeiro and Brooks Thompson. The team also announced that they were in talks with defender Mike DeShields and forward Kyle Edwards for a possible return in 2025.
Additionally, the club announced that forward Tyler Freeman, midfielders Anderson Asiedu, Joe Schmidt and Thomas Vancaeyezeele, defenders Triston Hodge and Younes Boudadi, and goalkeeper Greg Monroe would not return. Hartford Athletic had also previously announced the departure of midfielder Danny Barrera.
The club did not announce the contract status of forward Marcus Epps.
In addition to Barrera, who was not only the club’s longest-tenured player, but also had made a record 155 appearances in all competitions, Boudadi had made the third-most appearances (79) and Hodge the eighth-most (50). The trio were the active players with the most appearances for the club, leaving Beverly Makangila (47) as the player under contract with the most appearances in green and blue.
Among the players under contract for 2025, the Latics return both of their leading scorers. Dieng set a single-season scoring record for Hartford in 2024, with eleven goals, while Ngalina added eight goals and three assists. With the additional return of Beckford and potentially Edwards (both of whom recorded three goals and an assist), the group of forwards for 2025 seems fairly settled, although there were certainly be additions.
At the other end of the pitch, the return of USL Championship Goalkeeper of the Year Renan Riberio, along with backup Brooks Thompson - who made his second consecutive run to the USL League One Championship game following his loan to Spokane Velocity - makes a strong foundation for the keeper room.
In front of them are three of the preferred back four from the tail end of the 2024 season, with Samadia, Farrell and Scarlett all having played key roles in the late-season push for the playoffs. And in the middle of the park, both Makangila and Hairston made important contributions as the season progressed, and project to compete for minutes as defensive midfielders in 2025.
In contrast to the 2023-24 offseason, Hartford will return most of the top minutes-earners from the previous season, with seven of the top ten players who logged the most minutes for the club under contract for 2025. Triston Hodge and Thomas Vancaeyezeele are the most significant departures by this measure, with the pair playing the seventh and eight most minutes respectively. Both players were versatile in 2024, with Hodge playing at both full back and center-back, and Vancaeyezeele playing primarily at center back, but also filling in at defensive midfield, where he was named to the USL Championship Team of the Week in Week 12.
One of the most obvious holes in the roster after yesterday’s announcements is at right-back, where the team has no player under contract who played significant minutes in 2024 (the return of DeShields would at least give the club one option at that position). The other obvious holes are in midfield, where the team currently has no recognized No. 10, and only Jay Chapman as a theoretical No. 8. While Chapman is under contract, the fact that Hartford’s results almost immediately turned around following his loan to Charleston Battery suggests that he might not be in line to play a significant for the Latics in 2025.
The Blazing Musket will continue to have coverage of all of Hartford Athletic’s offseason moves as they are announced.