HERRIMAN, Utah (Thursday, August 17, 2023) – Real Salt Lake has permanently acquired Jamaican international Kevon Lambert from Phoenix Rising of the United Soccer League Championship, pending receipt of League and Federation approval. Terms of the inter-league domestic transaction were not disclosed, with Lambert signing a Major League Soccer contract with RSL through the end of the 2025 MLS season.
"Kevon is a player we’ve long had our eye on, someone who stood out in both his Phoenix Rising club play and his Jamaican National team appearances,” said RSL Technical Director Kurt Schmid. “Kevon adds size and international experience along our spine, whether on our back line or in the midfield. He has developed into, arguably, one of the most consistent players in the USL, and his international experience proves that he is ready for the next challenge.”
Lambert, 26, has spent the last seven seasons as a member of Phoenix Rising in the USL Championship, during which he helped the team qualify for the playoffs in all but one season. From 2017-present, Phoenix advanced to the USL Cup twice, finishing as the U.S. Soccer Federation’s Division II league’s Runner-Up in 2018 and as a joint finalist in the Covid-19 affected 2020 season. In 2019 – when Real Monarchs won the USL Championship title – Lambert and Phoenix were crowned regular-season champions.
“I’m extremely excited for this amazing opportunity,” said Lambert, amidst his altitude adjustment after his first few days in Utah. “I arrived in Phoenix as a boy and now I leave there as a man, a man now focused on doing whatever I can to help RSL win trophies this season and provide the Club a solid, dependable, versatile long-term piece. I’m proud to be the latest in a long line of Jamaican internationals to call Salt Lake home, and I look forward to representing the shield and playing before this spectacular fan base.”
Throughout his seven seasons with Phoenix, Lambert recorded 15 goals and 10 assists in 161 appearances across all competitions either a two-way box-to-box midfielder or centerback, earning himself seven USL Team of the Week awards. Lambert has appeared in 11 playoff matches, as well as three games in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, for which he is “cup-tied” in 2023, rendering him ineligible to appear for RSL in next week’s LHUSOC Semifinal at Houston.
Before arriving in America, Lambert began his professional career as a 17-year-old in his home country with Montego Bay United, appearing in 12 matches. Additionally, Lambert becomes the 56th Jamaican all-time to join Major League Soccer and the seventh currently rostered for the 2023 season, joining teammates Andre Blake, Javain Brown, Cory Burke, Damion Lowe, Ravel Morrison and Alvas Powell.
As a member of the Jamaican National Team, Lambert has helped the Reggae Boyz earn a best-ever finish at the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup as the tourney Runners-Up, as well as a second-place finish in the 2017 Caribbean Cup. Overall, Lambert has appeared in 23 matches for his home country, four of which came during the most recent CONCACAF Gold Cup, where he started in matches against Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States, as well as the semifinal match against Mexico.
Lambert becomes the seventh ‘Reggae Boy’ to find himself on an RSL roster since 2005, following Andy Williams, Ryan Johnson, Lovel Palmer, Khari Stephenson, Demar Phillips and Omar Holness.
