Report: RSL’s best-ever goalscorer, Alvaro Saborio, retires from soccer

Just weeks after joining his old club, Costa Rican outfit Saprissa, Alvaro Saborio looks to have retired from soccer, according to reports from Costa Rica.

Those reports quote Saborio in Spanish.

"Me retiro ya. Creo que este es el momento"

That translates to, "I'm retiring now. I think this is the moment." And that’s all the confirmation we need, I think.

Saborio, 34, scored 60 regular season goals for Real Salt Lake, four post-season goals, eight goals in the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League, and two more goals in the 2012-13 Champions League campaign.

He remains Real Salt Lake’s leading goalscorer, placing just ahead of Javier Morales, who finished his RSL career with 49 in the regular season.

Joining Real Salt Lake in 2010, Saborio made an instant impact: in his four full seasons at the club, he scored in double-digits every year; in 2014, when he left Real Salt Lake midseason in a trade for Luis Silva, he managed four goals for D.C. United and three for RSL.

Saborio remained at D.C. United until the end of last season, when he joined his first club, Saprissa. He’d first signed there in 2001. In 2006, he signed at FC Sion in Switzerland, and in 2009 he signed for a short time at Bristol City in England. He joined Real Salt Lake on loan in 2010, and the club signed him to a four-year contract at the end of that year.

In addition to being the club’s leading goalscorer, Saborio was Real Salt Lake’s first designated player. Despite his goal count, he consistently raised the ire of some fans for what they deemed ‘lazy’ play.

Saborio’s Real Salt Lake career ended in a bit of controversy: He missed a match for Real Salt Lake after reportedly being held off of an airplane for intoxication, and he was suspended for a short time thereafter. His trade away from Salt Lake was fairly uncontroversial, though, with the trade with D.C. United not seeming to feature much bad blood at all.