Jefferson Savarino is back, but will he be RSL's primary goal scorer in 2023?
Jefferson Savarino is back, but will he be RSL's primary goal scorer in 2023?
There were a lot of reasons Real Salt Lake was happy to welcome Jefferson Savarino back to training ahead of the final preseason trip to Arizona. Scoring goals is only one of them.
HERRIMAN, Utah — Jefferson Savarino tugged at his gray training top embroidered with the Real Salt Lake crest as if he were reminding himself that it were there as he came off the training pitch at the Zions Bank Real Academy on Monday.
After a lengthy offseason made lengthier by a visa renewal, the Venezuelan international had plenty of reasons to be starry-eyed on his first days back in Utah for preseason.
But he fit right in.
“It’s fun,” said RSL midfielder Diego Luna, himself recently returned from U-20 national team camp in Florida. “He’s somebody that I can play with, and I think he understands me well; we understand each other. It’s fun, and it’s good to have him back.”
Same ol’, same ol’ for Savarino?
“Well, we won’t really see what’s different until we play (a regular-season game),” the Venezuelan international said in Spanish. “I think the only player we lost was Cordova, and most of the rest are here. We had a few reinforcements (in Gomez), and we’ll see how we play differently in these games.
“I think we’ll be a little bit than last year. But we have big expectations for this year.”
Savarino wasn’t the only new face in Utah this weekend. Newly signed U-22 initiative player Carlos Andres Gomez went through his first training session with RSL after signing a club-record deal to be the club’s next goal-scoring winger.
Piece by piece, the group is coming back together.
“It’s great to have everyone on board, together,” RSL captain Damir Kreilach said after training this week. “I think this group of players are special people, and we just have to prove every single session who we are, to show our identity. At the end of the day, you play how you train. It’s the way RSL should be, and the way we’ve been the last couple of seasons.”
The 5-foot-6 designated player scored seven goals with six assists in 19 appearances last year with Real Salt Lake, his first full season back in the Utah capital since returning from a stay in Brazil.
His country mate Sergio Cordova led the team with nine goals, but after the FC Augsburg loanee was recalled by the David Blitzer co-owned parent club following the season, RSL didn’t bring in a center forward to replace him during the most recent international transfer window.
They did opt for a big-money signee in Gomez, the 20-year-old Colombian winger from Milionarios FC who arrived in the Salt Lake Valley this weekend. The speedy winger should fit into a natural goal-scoring position alongside Savarino, but there’s no doubt where the goals are going to come from.
RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni admits posing the question is a good one, though.
“I think Dami’s going to have to carry that load. I think Rubio (Rubin) is going to have to carry that load. And I think Anderson (Julio) is going to have to carry that load,” Mastroeni said. “We’re looking, obviously, for someone; we thought Serg might be coming back, and that’s not the case. We still have the option to bring someone in, but as far as the players we currently have, it’s Dami getting in that mindset where he’s going to be a goal-scorer, and then Rubio came on well late last season. And Anderson will get a lot of opportunity to become an impact player off the bench, but also to start games.
“Those are the three guys that I think we’re leaning on to score goals for us.”
Cordova has been strongly linked with a return to MLS, but via Vancouver Whitecaps FC on a $2.2 million transfer fee. That RSL didn’t re-sign him isn’t too terribly a surprise — his loan spell from Augsburg ended rather unceremoniously, and it’s believed that the two sides couldn’t come to a financial agreement on a more permanent adjustment (or another loan).
But that the 6-foot-2 striker from Calaboza, Venezuela is returning to MLS for another Western Conference club is a mild surprise. It’s also important to remember that Blitzer, who co-owns RSL with Utah Jazz majority owner Ryan Smith, is only part of the ownership group at FC Augsburg, so the running joke that Blitzer was negotiating with himself in the transaction was overly simplistic, at best — even if the visual image was amusing.
Loan deals and subsequent separations happen every year, too.
“I think it’s just football,” Mastroeni said. “I think there were so many factors, and most of those are personal factors, on his part. Most people have to make decisions, and they aren’t always easy, as a player.
“There’s a lot more that goes into it than ‘we want him, and he wants to come back.’ There are financial implications that have to make sense, and a slew of variables that go into it. I think he’s another player who improved a lot over the course of the year and finished the year strong, so I’m happy that he’s happy.”
Is Cordova worth the reported $2 million-plus fee? Time will tell.
For now, RSL is happy to have Savarino back for another season.
“Sava’s really sharp,” Mastroeni said. “He’s in a good way, and I think it’s just a matter of time. He played 30 minutes the other day, and the last 10, he got a bit tired. But when he’s out there, he’s sharp. It’s just a matter of doing that over 90 minutes.
“From where I thought he would be, I think he’s exceeded those expectations. But he’s still probably 2-3 weeks away from where the rest of the group is.”