RSL Trades GAM for International Roster Slot

Written Jan 23 2025

Real Salt Lake Trades GAM for International Roster Slot

On January 18th Real Salt Lake traded 185,000$ in 2025 GAM to DC United for a 2025 international roster slot. Almost every MLS team starts their MLS season with 8 international transfer slots. 

What does this mean for the Roster?

This is our first trade for 2025 international slots which would place us at 9 international roster slots. I am under the impression Real Salt Lake has Forster Ajago, Noel Caliskan, Ariath Piol, Rafael Cabral, Braian Ojeda, Elias Manoel, and Nelson Palacio occupying international roster slots (Note: I could be wrong, if you have any evidence to point to an alternative please email me at rslrooster@gmail.com or on twitter @rslrooster). That leaves us with 2 international slots to work with for the rest of the season. While I have no concrete player profiles or positions, I would expect it counterintuitive to have these slots without filling them. Bookmark rslrooster.com and check back daily to make sure you don't miss any rumors on how we use the slots.

What to hope for?

We have two international slots, a DP slot, and just under 4,000,000 GAM remaining for 2025. While it seems unlikely we get that DP before the start of the season. I do think it's likely we have some more activity with this GAM before the season starts. If I were in charge and had access to every player in the world (we do not) I'd go out and sign a DP replacement striker and spend the other 4 Million GAM on a right back and a winger for when we lose Diego Luna. I find it likely none of that happens. What I can hope for is we use the GAM to sign a 9 this window. A player like Brian White we could probably sign for 2 Million GAM and pay him another million of that for a max GAM contract. Then we use the DP slot to replace Diego Luna in the summer when he transfers. This is obviously just a hope, I have no reason to believe this is the path the front office will take. Stay tuned to find out if we are active in any way the rest of the window.