SANDY, Utah – Real Salt Lake announced today that DF Carlos Salcedo has been called into the Mexican Under-21 National Team for its April 20-23 camp in Mexico City.
This is Salcedo’s first call-up to the Mexican U-21’s, which serves as a preparatory squad for Mexico’s 2016 Olympic efforts. El Tri won the 2012 Olympic Games in London, beating Brazil 2-1 in the final to take home gold. The 20-year-old center back will not miss any Real Salt Lake matches due to the call up, departing Salt Lake City on Sunday following RSL’s Saturday home match against Portland Timbers and returning to Utah ahead of the Claret-and-Cobalt’s April 26 home date against Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
“It feels good to get called in,” Salcedo said. “It’s always exciting to represent your country, and this is a very big camp for me. I’m just really excited to show the coaching staff how much I’ve developed since I came to Real Salt Lake, and how much my game has grown in MLS.”
Salcedo has one appearance for RSL this year, coming on for the final 20 minutes of RSL’s 3-3 draw at San Jose Earthquakes on March 15. A product of the RSL-Arizona Academy, the second-year player made 18 appearances – 16 of which were starts – across all competitions in his rookie season in 2013.
A Guadalajara native, Salcedo is the fourth Real Salt Lake first-team player to be called to a youth national team in the last month. RSL DF/MF Jordan Allen and FW Benji Lopez were both called to the U.S. U-20’s last week, while recent Homegrown signing DF Justen Glad recently wrapped a stint with the U.S. U-18’s. Glad was joined at the U-18 camp by RSL-Arizona Academy players GK Christian Herrera and FW Sebastian Saucedo. In addition to the club’s youth internationals, Real Salt Lake had four players called into the U.S. Men’s National Team’s most recent camp, with Captain Kyle Beckerman, GK Nick Rimando, DF Tony Beltran and MF Luis Gil all called up for the U.S.’s April 2 friendly against Mexico. RSL FW
Real Salt Lake will return to action on Saturday, when it will host Portland at 7:30 p.m. at Rio Tinto Stadium in a rematch of the 2013 Western Conference Final series. A limited amount of tickets are still available to the expected sell-out; fans can purchase tickets at the Rio Tinto Stadium box office, online at www.RealSaltLake.com/Tickets or over the phone at 801-727-2700.
