_________, the squad also has a couple of new faces who are equally well-qualified to play the forthcoming match.

The blank requires a discourse marker that introduces additional concurrent information about the squad. 'Meanwhile' indicates 'at the same time' or 'in addition to what was just mentioned' and naturally introduces a related piece of information about new players in the squad. 'While' as a sentence-opener would need a clause to follow. 'Because of' requires a noun phrase complement. 'Kind of' is informal hedging and unsuitable. Therefore the answer is (c) Meanwhile.