SANDY — Every summer when he was growing up in the rural Catalonia region of Spain, Sergi Solans would work on his dad's fruit farm. He enjoyed the work, spending time working in the field with his father among the trees and fruit plants.
But he also had other motivations.Solans wanted to be paid.
Well, sort of.
"The deal was," the Real Salt Lake rookie explained after training Friday, "I would work with him all summer, and then he would buy me new cleats for the season."
The investment has proven worth it.
Solans has been an initial success story in his first professional season in Major League Soccer, scoring three goals in his first six appearances (including four starts) for Salt Lake (4-1-1, 13 points).
But if he ever goes back to Spain, as he's considering during the offseason or longer breaks in the current campaign, his father won't treat him like a professional athlete, either. Candidly, he admits that his father was often "very critical" of him as a soccer player.
But the lessons learned from him — both on the soccer pitch and on the fruit farm — still remain.
"If I go back to Spain, he will make me work," Solans said with a smile. "Nothing will change. But that's one of the things that I think nobody knows: I really like spending time alone, or with him, getting Spanish fruit that is very nice."
Solans is one of the latest examples of a club trying to live its mantra of "winning through development." Whether that development comes from the RSL Academy system, the Real Monarchs pathway identification, or the farmland near Lleida, Spain, by way of Oregon State and UCLA men's soccer, the pathway remains.
Even in the club's adjusted off week, a 12-day break between games due to MLS rescheduling Sunday's match against Seattle to September as a result of the Sounders' Concacaf Champions Cup advancement, the focus on development remained.
Which may help explain why eight days before next Saturday's home tilt against San Diego FC (7:30 p.m. MT, Apple TV), the club was back at America First Field for an 11-on-11 scrimmage featuring every available player on the roster, as well as a handful of callups from the third-division Real Monarchs and RSL's youth academy ranks.
The takeaway from Friday's scrimmage was similar to Real Salt Lake's current five-match unbeaten run: the youth have impressed.
Here's another name to monitor: Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos.
The second-year pro from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by way of Marshall has four goals and two assists in the first four matches with Real Monarchs, and scored a goal for both teams in Friday's scrimmage after switching jerseys at halftime.
But more than scoring goals, Mastroeni looks for reaction time. And Rodrigues has it.
"You can think the game and execute at an academy level or the Monarchs level," said RSL manager Pablo Mastroeni, who called Rodrigues "fantastic." "But that's probably 2-3 levels below playing LAFC or San Diego; you just don't get the time.
"So can you focus and execute against Lukas Engel, Philip Quinton or guys who are playing first-team minutes consistently," he added. "That's the biggest thing; whether they can score or are perfect on the day is irrelevant. It's really about whether they can consistently make the best decision in a game that is much faster than the level they are currently playing at."
Rodrigues, who is on an MLS NEXT Pro contract with Monarchs, may see an opportunity with the first team sooner rather than later. Perhaps the only thing keeping him from breaking through before now is the club's extensive list of talented youth.
In many ways, Salt Lake is led by a younger, rising core that also includes Diego Luna, Zavier Gozo, Aiden Hezarkhani and Luca Moisa.
The same is true for Solans. It's still early in his professional career, but there's something about Salt Lake that fits well with him a year after scoring 16 goals with six assists in 19 appearances last year for the Bruins.
Real Salt Lake plays a similar style as his old UCLA squad with Solans under head coach Ryan Jordan and Spanish assistant Sergi Nus, who moved with Solans from Corvallis to Westwood en route to a Big Ten title.
To call the style of play "comforting" to Solans may be an understatement.
"It's easy to say when we are winning games, and when I score," he said. "But I think it's pretty similar to what we played at UCLA with a Spanish coach, a 3-2-2-3, me alone up top with two 10s behind me; it's easier for me when I have more support behind me that give me more opportunities. It's a crazy thing."
Just as important, Solans also notes, was the work he put in before the season.
Prior to returning stateside, the rookie who became jokingly known as "Trialist 22" when he joined the club for preseason stints in Portugal returned to his home country during the Christmas break.
While there, he continued his training, telling family and friends that "the only thing I can control is my body and my mind."
"That is the thing that I was working on," he added. "When I arrived here to get this good feeling with my teammates, I wanted to be ready when Pablo gave me the opportunity. That was the key."
