SANDY, Utah (Thursday, January 7, 2016) – Real Salt Lake General Manager Craig Waibel announced on Thursday that the club has re-signed DF Demar Phillips and DF Phanuel Kavita. Per league and team policy, terms of the deals were not disclosed.
Phillips signed prior to the 2015 season after the Jamaican National Team defender played most of his career in Norway with Aalesund. The 32-year-old left back appeared in 18 matches in regular season play, 16 of them in a starting role. He added five starts in Open Cup and CONCACAF Champions League play. However, injuries and national team commitments kept him from being available more regularly.
“We had great conversations with Demar and the maturity he showed really impressed us,” Waibel said. “He was really frustrated with the season he had and we wanted to make sure we are on the same page. It makes it easy to bring a guy like that back.”
Kavita signed as a Homegrown Player after the Salt Lake City native and Highland High School product played four seasons at Clemson. He made two appearances for RSL in the regular season and added one more appearance in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and 18 matches with the USL affiliate with Real Monarchs SLC.
“He’s a good young player and a fantastic human being,” Waibel said. “He’s driven to prove the people who have supported him his whole life right and he’s driven to make this work.”
Real Salt Lake opens training camp on January 22 and will include trips to Oceanside, California, and Tucson, Arizona, before the season kicks off on February 24 when RSL will face UANL Tigres in the Quarterfinal Round of CONCACAF Champions League.
