RSL Signs 4 Homegrowns

Written Jan 20 2025

RSL Signs 4 Homegrowns

On Thursday Real Salt Lake announced Real Salt Lake signed 4 new homegrown players. I'm going to give a small piece to each player, I hope there's a bit of information in each of them you might not be aware of. On Wednesday Jan 15 I did get the opportunity to speak to Kurt Schmid. I asked specifically if he saw any new homegrowns getting significant minutes for the first team this year. He specifically said "There's not a huge crop coming through right now" when referring to first team impact. I think it's fair to say it's unlikely any of these guys breaks 1000 minute this year. Be sure to watch out though, we might see their names on the bench a few times. We're really looking for them to impact the Monarchs and do well with youth national teams.

Owen Anderson

I don't want to pick favorites, but of the 4 I like this kid the most. He's a 17 year old attacking midfielder. Last year we saw him play in 16 of the Monarchs 28 games. In those games he ended up scoring 5 goals. Tied for the most on the team. This is a name you might not have heard of until a year ago. This mainly has to do with the fact he came up in the San Jose Academy and made the move to Utah in the summer of 2022. We've always rated him highly but I remember there being a problem with his homegrown discovery rights which San Jose wouldn't give up. If it wasn't for that I think we might have gotten him signed to a contract sooner. I hope he can be a star for the monarchs this year and make his debut for the first team.

Aiden Hezarkhani

Aiden is a 17 year old striker who played 651 minutes over 15 appearances with the monarchs last year. He scored twice and notched one assist. Aiden also has 2 caps with the USYNT U18s where he has one goal. Young attackers normally have 2 priorities, progress physically and score goals. If he can do that he'll fit into our plans. This is a quote from Pablo Mastroeni on Aiden after seeing him in some first team practices. "A lot of young players have come through over the years, with different types of skill sets. I think Aiden has the 6th sense of football, which is something you can't teach. His special awareness and his decision making for a young man at 16 years old is next level for me."

Omar Marquez

Omar Marquez is a player with significant scouting from the youth setups in a America. He has 10 appearances for the USYNT U15 and U16s. That's really unique for a 16 year old. People who have an eye for talent see Omar and definitely think there's something there. Omar is a 16 year old attacker who got 17 appearances for the Monarchs totaling 618 minutes. As a 16 year old, this is plenty. There are very few 16 year old's getting significant minutes in MLS Next Pro, let alone goals and assists. If he wants to stay on track this year, keep those appearances up and try to contribute to the team.

Juan Gio Villa

Gio turned 17 this month and got rewarded with a new contract with RSL. He is a right footed fullback who has the ability to switch to the left. He has appeared for both the Mexican and American youth setups totalling 16 appearances from the U15-U17 level. This year it's looking like we have two good young fullbacks playing for the Monarchs in Gio and Luis Rivera. Hopefully both of them can take strides and earn more significant minutes. Last year Gio made 2 appearances for 112 minutes with the Monarchs.

Roster Construction Notes

All 3 of these players have been added to the roster sheet. None of them are internationals. They can all be loaned back to the Monarchs. I find this likely considering we have well over 30 players in Training Camp. I have each of their cap hits being 91,184.25$. This number is arbitrary and is the average cap hit of all our other homegrowns.