CPL champion Atletico Ottawa has holes to fill next season, especially in attack

By: The Canadian Press Posted: 1:09 PM CST Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025

OTTAWA - Atletico Ottawa will have some holes to fill next season, starting up front.

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OTTAWA - Atletico Ottawa will have some holes to fill next season, starting up front.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/12/2025 (298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – Atletico Ottawa will have some holes to fill next season, starting up front.

The Canadian Premier League champion released its end-of-season roster update Wednesday, showing just 11 players under contract for 2026 as of now.

Ottawa announced in August that star striker Sam Salter is headed to Sweden first-tier side GAIS on Jan. 1, following the expiry of his CPL contract. The 25-year-old from Laval, Que., was named the CPL’s Player of the Year, the Players’ Player of the Year and Golden Boot winner after leading the league with 20 goals in 30 games.

Atletico Ottawa's Samuel Salter, left, and Pacific FC's Juan Quintana collide while vying for the ball during the second half of a Canadian Championship quarterfinal soccer match, in Langford, B.C., on Wednesday, May 29, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

David Rodriguez, who scored both goals in Ottawa’s 2-1 win over Cavalry FC in the Nov. 9 CPL championship game, is returning to Atletico San Luis, his Mexican club, now that his loan spell is over. Rodriguez scored 11 goals for Ottawa last season.

Fellow attacker Kevin Dos Santos, who had four goals, is also not returning, the club said.

The nine returning players with guaranteed 2026 contracts are defenders Loïc Cloutier, Joaquim Coulanges, Brett Levis and Sergei Kozlovskiy, midfielders Gabriel Antinoro and Jean-Aniel Assi, and forwards Ralph Khoury, Richie Ennin and Ballou Tabla.

Mexican midfielder Juan (Coque) Castro has had his 2026 option automatically triggered after meeting a performance trigger within his contract. Ottawa has also exercised the option on Noah Abatneh, a finalist for both CPL Defender of the year and Best Under-21 Canadian Player.

Ottawa has until Dec. 31 to trigger 2026 options on goalkeeper Tristan Crampton, defender Jason Hartill and veteran midfielder Manny Aparicio.

Like Salter, goalkeeper Nathan Ingham; defenders Amer Didić and Tyr Duhaney-Walker and midfielders Alberto Zapater, Noah Verhoeven, Abou Sissoko and Dos Santos are on expiring contracts.

Zapater, the club’s co-captain who turned 40 in June, had previously said he was retiring at the end of the season, ending a career that saw him play club football in his native Spain, Italy, Portugal and Russia before coming to Canada.

Striker Monty Patterson has had his contract terminated by mutual agreement.

Kevin Ortega (Atletico San Luis), Antonio Álvarez (Club America) and Roni Mbomio (Atletico Madrid) have returned to their respective clubs following the expiry of their loan deals. Iker Moreno was previously recalled by Atletico San Luis in July.

Like Ottawa, San Luis is part of the Atletico Madrid corporate family.

U Sports draft picks Joseph Daher (Carleton University) and Gabriel Tardiff (Brock University) have been invited to training camp to see if they can earn a U Sports contract for the 2026 season.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2025