Report: RSL, Rusnak working on new deal, Stejskal says

Because we can’t go more than five minutes without a new development in what we can now officially call Infinity Rusnak Contract Wars, MLS Soccer reporter Sam Stejskal is dropping in on the fun and games of yesterday’s news about the state of Albert Rusnak and Real Salt Lake.

First, let’s recall that this news just dropped Tuesday, and it was Albert Rusnak who was doing the dropping. He’s happy to be leaving for international duty, he says. I guess it’s good he speaks his mind, but really, this isn’t the sort of thing that helps the club.

Then, news came sprinting out of former RSL player and current soccer broadcaster Ian Joy’s tweet-mouth: Albert Rusnak is — or at least was — a target for Sparta Prague, a Czech club. Keith Costigan, another Fox Sports broadcaster, brought that one to Joy’s attention, it seemed.

So today, Sam Stejskal, consistently one of the best sources for Real Salt Lake news (and perhaps understandably so, given he worked in communications for the club), broke the word that the club has been negotiating with Rusnak on a new contract since January. That’s something I’d heard back in January or so, but things got quiet. In MLS, that’s sort of par for the course — deals might get completed, and they might not, and you might not ever really hear about them.

At any rate, Stejskal reported that RSL has made “several offers” — which I take to be either three or four, but that’s me just reading into the word “several” — and that the two sides haven’t yet agreed to terms.

Now, the terms of a contract, particularly in MLS, are often sticking points. It may not just be the guaranteed compensation that ends up a sticking point, though. It might also be around performance bonuses, or wage increases season-over-season, or it could even be around option years.

Again, there’s more that we don’t know than we know, and if the news continues to evolve, we should have closure in, what, eight hours? I kid, of course. Stejskal says his source believes a deal will get done, so I’m going to take that as the first really positive news from this whole ordeal.

We’ll have the latest on Infinity Rusnak Contract Wars as soon as we can. Until then ... well, no spoilers.