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SALT LAKE CITY — Real Salt Lake showed its intentions to be an active participant early Friday ahead of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft.
An hour before expansion club San Diego was put on the clock for the No. 1 pick, RSL acquired Brazilian forward Elias Manoel and four draft picks from the New York Red Bulls, including three picks in Friday's draft.
RSL sent $700,000 in general allocation money in return for the picks and Manoel, who scored 18 goals for the Red Bulls in his two years in New York, including a hat trick in the playoffs against Charlotte in 2023.
The New York picks were used to select three of the eight players RSL chose in the SuperDraft, second only on the day to Colorado's nine. Two of the eight players were goalkeepers, marking the first time RSL has taken a keeper in the draft since Andrew Putna in 2017.
The highest player taken Friday by RSL was a forward, however, using its own original first-round pick at No. 19 to take Missouri State senior Jesus Barea. A native of Cádiz, Spain, Barea was a MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalist in 2024 (awarded to the nation's top collegiate player) and scored 15 goals to tie for fourth-most in Division I.
RSL made its second trade of the day to snag Columbus' pick at No. 21 and take UConn redshirt freshman and goalkeeper Max Kerkvliet, who was not on the MLS pre-draft list of top keepers expected to be taken and could elect to return to college with new rules instituted by MLS last year.
The Claret and Cobalt used a pair of acquired picks to close out the first round with back-to-back selections at No. 29 and No. 30, taking two forwards in Lineker Rodrigues Dos Santos from Marshall and Sergi Solans from Oregon State to bring its first-round haul to four players.
Should Rodrigues Dos Santos earn an MLS contract, he would join Manoel as the only two Brazilians on the RSL roster. Solans joins Barea as Spanish compatriots making their way to Utah.
RSL shifted its focus away from the attack for its remaining four picks, selecting Virginia center-back Nick Dang and Wake Forest keeper Trace Alphin at Nos. 49 and 59, respectively.
Nick Dang was projected to go No. 5 overall in the MLS Mock Draft and RSL got him at 49th overall.
— Caleb Turner (@calebturner23) December 20, 2024
Jesus Barea was also projected top 10 (taken 19th) and Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos was the final projected first rounder (taken 29th). pic.twitter.com/8e8CCyiYxL
The third and final round brought defensive midfielder — and Alphin's teammate at Wake Forest — Liam O'Gara to the fold, along with Rodrigues Dos Santos' defensive counterpart from Marshall in senior center-back Aleksandar Vukovic from Serbia.
The final positional breakdown of RSL's draft haul was three forwards, two goalkeepers, two center-backs and one midfielder. Four of the players taken hail from outside the U.S.
RSL declined contract options for international players Matthew Bell and Bertin Jacquesson this offseason, perhaps opening up an international roster slot for one of these picks to make their case for a first-team spot.
While the SuperDraft is not known to consistently produce stars in MLS, RSL found a gem in the 2023 draft with Emeki Eneli taken 25th overall from Cornell.
Eneli was voted RSL's 2024 MVP by his teammates in just his second professional season and has been mentioned by the media as a potential U.S. men's national team prospect in the near future.
RSL also announced its 2025 MLS schedule on Thursday, with the season opener on the road on Feb. 22 against San Jose before returning to Sandy for the home opener on March 1 against the Seattle Sounders.
The 2025 season officially starts on Feb. 19, however, with RSL traveling to Costa Rica for the CONCACAF Champions Cup opener against Herediano.
