Back in October of 2010, Real Salt Lake and the New York Red Bulls played an innocuous enough scoreless draw at Rio Tinto Stadium. Somewhere in the stadium, though, a 12-year-old Danilo Acosta was seeing his first MLS match after a recent move from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and instantly fell in love with the Claret-and-Cobalt.
At one point he turned to his father among the screaming capacity crowd and expressed with great passion and sincerity that one day he would be on that field. It seemed like just a dream in the moment. Now, Acosta is making the dream a reality after signing a contract with Real Salt Lake on Tuesday, making the 18-year-old the 10th Homegrown Player signing in Real Salt Lake history.
Along the way, Acosta spent three years away from his family with the RSL-Arizona Academy, twice reaching the national final. He has also been called in to the U.S. U-18 and U-20 National Teams, where he has learned to thrive in multiple positions. He also got encouragement from players like Jamison Olave and Javier Morales.
However, it was a word from former RSL forward Fabian Espindola that provided the best motivation as he pursued that long-sought dream. Acosta’s father befriended several players with RSL and when Espindola came to the house one day he watched the aspiring young player and a simple bit of praise in passing proved to be his greatest inspiration.
“One day you’ll be marking me,” Acosta remembers Espindola saying.
He used that as motivation while plying his trade with the Academy.
The dream appeared even closer to him when he met with the Real Salt Lake coaching staff last year. There, again, a few words from the right sources encouraged him to elevate his work even more as he drew closer to rising to the level of a professional.
Now, with an aptitude at both center back and holding midfield roles, he comes to RSL ready to continue that growth with his childhood club.
The homecoming was a motivating factor in his signing as well. Acosta had committed to play soccer at UCLA, but after thoroughly considering his time away from family – already three years with the Academy and potentially four more at UCLA – he started leaning more toward signing with RSL. When he also took into account the instruction and competition he’d be getting by playing with some of the best midfielders MLS has ever seen in Morales and Kyle Beckerman.
Now the former Aztex, La Rocca and Sparta player is ready to start preseason with RSL in a matter of weeks.
“It really is a dream come true,” he beamed while walking through the Real Salt Lake locker room.
