The five faces at the table at the Real Salt Lake Downtown Team Store could not have beamed brighter smiles on Tuesday. Real Salt Lake Owner Dell Loy Hansen, General Manager Craig Waibel and Head Coach Jeff Cassar introduced the club’s latest signing, forward Yura Movsisyan alongside his representation, Patrick McCabe of Global Premier Management, and the five lit up the room as they described the circumstances that brought them all together that day and ultimately brought Movsisyan back for a second go-round with RSL.
“This is a very emotional day for me and my family to be back here – to be in Salt Lake again,” the 28-year-old Movsisyan said. “I can just say I’m extremely excited and I can’t wait to get on the field. I can’t wait to play in front of our fans again and win more championships.”
Added Cassar, “We’re really excited to bring Yura back into the RSL family. We’ve tracked him over his career in Denmark and Russia. When we got this opportunity, Craig and his agent Patrick worked closely with Yura to get him back here and we couldn’t be more happy. We’re really excited to get him paired up with the rest of our attacking options and put out a potent RSL attack.”
That enthusiasm permeated the afternoon and into the evening as Movsisyan made stops at KUTV TV’s studios and then ESPN 700 radio before finally finishing the night with a Town Hall event at the Club at 50 West. There, fans mirrored the smiles from earlier in the day as they showered the Armenian striker with praise and peppered him and the RSL technical staff with questions.
The task was no easy one, despite mutual interest from both RSL and Movsisyan permeating the previous year. Negotiations with Spartak Moscow were not easy ones, but ultimately, the club did him the favor of allowing his loan to the club he sought to play for, with an option for RSL to purchase his contract at the conclusion of the loan.
Adding to the trials was one final hurdle at the end, as Movsisyan traveled 19 hours each direction from Los Angeles to Moscow to sign the final paperwork before finally being introduced in a white Real Salt Lake No. 14 jersey.
“He clearly made a life-choice decision to come here and it wasn’t about money. It was about people he loved, players he loved playing with, a city that loves him … my hair’s standing up right now,” Hansen said.
The last time he was in Salt Lake City, he had a celebratory dinner after winning the 2009 MLS Cup. Now, he says he is returning home. And while he spent only three seasons in Salt Lake, he still considers it his soccer home because of his experiences with those teams.
“You can’t put it in words. Playing on a football team, usually you don’t have this family environment. Salt Lake was always home,” Movsisyan said. “Everybody had to respect each other. We would fight for each other and that’s the main thing that we had off the field and it translated on the field.”
That speechlessness continued throughout the evening as Movsisyan saw his reception at 50 West and spotted billboards with his likeness scattered around the city. It was the dawning of a new day for Real Salt Lake as excitement builds toward the 2016 season.
