Wasatch Soccer Sentinel

Real Salt Lake’s silly season is continuing apace — generally, a very welcome change from the last long while, where nothing seemed to be happening. Now, things happening, of course, doesn’t mean things are better, but they’re certainly more interesting. Let’s chat through some of the potential comings and goings.

Juan Manuel Sanabria

After some mixed reports that Uruguayan left wing back Sanabria was set to stay at Atletico San Luis, the deal appears to have come through. Tom Bogert (of course) reported on the move on Sunday, indicating the player is set to join RSL.

Such a move really represents a shift for RSL, as it would seemingly indicate that Alex Katranis’s starting place is completely gone — you don’t sign a player on a multi-million dollar deal in MLS without planning for them to start. Backup would of course be nice, but at Katranis’s rate, it sure doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.

Anyway, this is an exciting move. Sanabria seems like a real talent.

Pablo Ruiz to Colo Colo?

These rumors keep floating around, but there’s still silence from the reliable stateside folks. Argentine reporter Cesar Luis Merlo is the main source of these rumors, and he’s indicated that the deal would be a year-long loan with a purchase option. Is this a “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” situation?

I still wonder what Ruiz’s role in the team would be, should he stay, in 2026, and I think there’s room to improve upon his playing style. While his long-passing game is on point, the big gaps it leaves in RSL’s midfield don’t really shape well with Diego Luna’s playing style. We’ll see here.

Checking in on recent rumors

• There’s nothing about Morgan Guilavogui thus far that makes me believe a move isn’t in the cards, The classic unsourced-rumor-reporting folks all think it was basically a done deal, but I’ll wait for official confirmation — whether that’s from the club or from Tom Bogert. (To be clear, Bogert already posted about this one, but still! I'd like confirmation.)
• Rumors still persist about Juan José Arias from Colombian side Atlético Nacional. He's a 22-year-old center back with Copa Libertadores experience in the last year, and it's hard to imagine he wouldn't be a solid addition.

Van Parker: Academy » RSL contract

Canadian U-18 and RSL academy forward Van Parker has signed an MLS deal with Real Salt Lake. I don’t know anything about this kid aside from having watched some highlight reels from the U-17 World Cup, in which he played. It’s always nice to see a prospect get a contract, I suppose, but I wouldn’t expect to see him any time soon with the first team. Would I love if he turned out to be a game-changing player? Of course. That sounds great.

Given he’s just 17, I’d expect him to continue with the academy for a bit before playing for Real Monarchs — just going by the trajectory of other players. Still, it’s hard to ignore somebody like Zavier Gozo, who turns 19 in March, providing a bit of a reference point for these youths.