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Real Salt Lake has traded an international spot for 2017 season to Minnesota United in exchange for $50,000 in allocation money and a third-round draft pick in 2018, according to a club-issued press release.
But before you start panicking, that’s just for one year — this isn’t a case of Real Salt Lake trading away their international spots for good, like they did twice in the very early days of the club.
This leaves Real Salt Lake with six international spots. Each of those is likely used right now:
- Jose Hernandez
- Omar Holness
- Sunday Stephen
- Demar Phillips
- Joao Plata
- Albert Rusnak
It remains to be seen if any of those players could end up with green cards or citizenship, but that would change our calculations considerably. It also signals that, for now, Real Salt Lake isn’t going to sign another foreign player to bolster the squad.
We’ll see how this shakes out, but this doesn’t seem like a totally negative deal.