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Former Portland Timbers 2 forward Kharlton Belmar has signed with Sporting Kansas City’s USL affiliate Swope Park Rangers, according to a press release issued today by SKC.
This marks the first publicized move of a T2 player this offseason, as the Timbers organization has yet to make any announcement regarding the status of the T2 roster.
Belmar burst into the scene in the USL in 2015, winning the Rookie of the Year nod after leading T2 in scoring with 12 goals. Despite that, Belmar was relegated to the bench in 2016, falling behind new arrivals Vilian Bijev and Augustine Williams on the T2 depth chart.
The loss of Belmar, which will sting for fans of the energetic forward, is none the less unsurprising from T2, a side whose stated purpose is to produce players for the first team. If Belmar was not delevolping into a player that the first team expected to use in the future, then his future was always going to take him elsewhere.