HERRIMAN, Utah (Tues., Dec. 19, 2023) – Real Salt Lake today added six players via the 2024 MLS SuperDraft, including a pair of first-round picks chosen at 16th and 18th overall – M/F Matthew Bell and DF Kevin Bonilla. Both RSL picks were MAC Hermann Trophy Semifinalists this year, receiving distinction in college soccer’s Heisman Trophy equivalents.
In the second round, RSL utilized both picks to select a pair of Louisville teammates, taking FW Damien Barker John, a sophomore Cardinal, with the 37th overall selection, while choosing junior DF Josh Jones later in the round with the 47th overall pick.
The third and final round saw RSL pick 76th and 84th overall, taking Georgetown DF Max Jennings and Duke D/M Ruben Mesalles.
Bell, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, recently completed his sophomore season at Marshall University, earning SunBelt Conference Player of the Year and SBC Offensive Player of the Year honors, with Hermann Trophy watch list accolades while powering the Thundering Herd to with a single-season program record of 10 goals / 12 assists, just the second player in program history to register multiple 10-goal campaigns.
“I think the style of play that RSL plays is how I would love to play – I'm so excited,” said Bell, the latest in a long line of Jamaican internationals to call Utah home, including active rostered centerback Kevon Lambert. “I can't wait to get started and hopefully we'll build an everlasting relationship. And I hope to be at the Club for many, many years and hopefully I can win some championships.”
“I was speaking with the coaches during the showcase and they really explained to me how I would fit their style of play and how they would use me. I think that’s what I want for my career as well. I'm excited to see what it brings and I'm just really excited. I don't even know what to say because it's such a big moment for me in my life. It's just really exciting at the moment and I'm just so so eager to play.
“I think I'm the type of player who can come in and impact right away, but I also know that if the coaching staff feels I need to be in the second team, I'm open to that too. I'm open to learning and growing as a player because this is just the start of my career. I'm also very ambitious, and I'm very goal oriented, and I think I could potentially impact the first team, and hopefully get a lot of minutes this year, and just grow as a player and help the Club to win trophies.”
Bonilla, a dual U.S. / Honduras international from the Univ. of Portland, is a highly-regarded Dallas native, distinguishing himself as one of the top outside backs in the country. The reigning WCC Defender of the Year, Bonilla is the first Portland Pilot to be drafted in the first round of the MLS SuperDraft since 2010, when RSL took MF Collen Warner. The 22-year-old senior was also named to TopDrawerSoccer’s Best XI, the All-West Region First Team and the All-WCC First Team as well.
“I’m excited to just have the opportunity, to be honest with you,” said Bonilla, well-versed in both the MLS Academy and college soccer landscapes. “It's been a tough road the past couple four years in terms for my family stuff and other things going on. But just the team believing in me and giving me the opportunity is all I could ask for. Now it's just on me to put the work in.
“I think first goal for anybody is to play, I understand that it's going to take me impressing and me doing what I do. And you know, the whole reason you guys brought me here is for a certain reason in terms of how I play this year and past couple years. So I understand the challenge at hand and I'm ready for it.
“I know RSL has had a great academy over the years. One of my teammates from last year, Delentz Pierre, just moved there. He's only told me good things. And I mean, if they’ve brought in players like Diego Luna and Delentz and all their academy players out of there, it's only means good things for me. I mean, definitely a good impression from the beginning. At a place like RSL who had an amazing year last year, I think, it'll work out.
“The only thing I'd say to the fans is that I appreciate them and I'm excited for the stadium and for the energy. Know you're bringing in a kid who’s brought it out the mud and has come from nothing and that he's got a family and a couple of brothers behind him who, who support him through anything and he's seen it all. So whatever is thrown at me, whether it's a good or bad thing, I know I'll be able to handle it.”
OTHER 2024 MLS SuperDraft Picks for Real Salt Lake:
- FW Damien Barker John
* Louisville Sophomore
* Queens, NY
* 5-foot-8 / 150-lb
* 2023 All-ACC Second Team
* 2023 All-South Region Third Team
* Nine (9) goals / three (3) assists
* Third Louisville player since 2001 to register three (3) multi-goal games
* DF Josh Jones
* Louisville Junior
* Hatfield, PA
* 6-foot-5 / 210-lb
* All-ACC Third Team
* Three (3) goals / two (2) assists in 1,514 minutes
* DF Maximus Jennings
* Georgetown Sophomore
* Montclair, NJ
* 6-foot / 170-lb
* 35 appearances / 33 starts in two NCAA seasons
* Five (5) goals / one (1) assist
* Named Hoyas’ 2022 Most Improved Player
* D/M Ruben Mesalles
* Duke University Junior
* Sarasota, FL
* 6-foot / 165-lb
* Seven (7) goals / 15 assists
* 56-game career across three Blue Devil seasons
Real Salt Lake will resume preparations for the Club’s 20th MLS season on January 10, 2024, when Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni welcomes several players to Herriman’s Zions Bank Training Center.
The 2023 RSL side amassed the Club’s seventh 50-point season all-time, and just the second since the 2014 campaign. Finishing 11th overall out of 29 teams, RSL crashed out of the postseason by the thinnest of margins for a second consecutive year (Austin 2022, Houston 2023), dropping a road shootout tiebreaker in Texas. Other 2023 RSL milestones:
- Accumulated an all-time Club-best road record with 12 results in 17 away MLS matches, posting an 8W-5L-4T mark with 28 of its 50 reg. season points amassed on the road; RSL’s previous road bests were recorded in 2012 and 2013, with identical 6W-7L-4T marks;
- RSL’s home mark of 6W-7L-4T was its worst since 2007, when a 4W-7L-4T record on the Rice-Eccles turf marked the 19-year nadir;
- During a nearly four-month span from mid-April to early August, RSL dropped just three of 24 games across all competitions, including MLS reg. season action, its Open Cup run to the Semifinals and its initial Leagues Cup foray;
- Thirty-two (32) different players saw action for RSL in 2023, including 15-year-old FW Axel Kei and 16-year-old Zavier Gozo making their Homegrown debuts, along with Academy products GK Gavin Beavers and DF Delentz Pierre also making their first-ever first-team appearances; a trio of rookies – D/M Emeka Eneli, FW Bertin Jacquesson and FW Ilijah Paul – made their professional debuts, while FW Andrés Gómez, MF Nelson Palacio, DF Kevon Lambert and DF Brayan Vera notched their first-ever MLS appearances last season;
- Since April 16, 2005, RSL has enjoyed a prominent home-field advantage on Utah soil – posting a dominant 194-83-95 (Win-Loss-Draw) record across all competitions at home (1.82 points per game for a 0.649 win pct.) – since arriving on the Wasatch Front nearly 20 years ago;
- Since opening its permanent home in Sandy just over 15 years ago, in October, 2008, RSL’s 164-58-75 (W-L-T) mark at America First Field – home of the “RioT” Supporters Group umbrella – equates to a 1.91 points per game average and a 0.679 win pct, one of the truly amazing value proposition in North American sporting landscape today!
ABOUT REAL SALT LAKE
During the first week of January 2022, the RSL compendium of properties was acquired by global sports entrepreneur David Blitzer – who boasts interests in the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the New Jersey Devils (NHL), the Cleveland Guardians (baseball) and the Washington Commanders (NFL) – as well as several European soccer entities, including Crystal Palace (England), FC Augsburg (Germany), Estoril (Portugal), ADO Den Haag (Netherlands), Alcorcón (Spain), SK Beveren (Belgium) and Brøndby IF (Denmark). The Blitzer group partners with Utah-based Smith Entertainment Group (SEG), which owns the Utah Jazz (NBA), led by Ryan Smith and including Dwyane Wade, among others.
Real Salt Lake completed its 19th Major League Soccer season this past November, its second full season under Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni, who led the Utah side on an interim basis for the final 100 days in 2021. RSL is the lone Western Conference side to have advanced to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in each of 2021, 2022 and 2023, amassing 13 postseason appearances in the last 16 years, as well as five occasions in the last six seasons.
RSL's MLS Cup 2009 victory marked the state of Utah's only major professional championship in nearly 40 years, the title preceding an historic run to the 2010/11 CONCACAF Champions League Final. Buoyed by a passionate base boasting several thousand season ticket holders and opening its permanent home in Sandy just over 15 years ago, since October, 2008, RSL’s 164-58-75 (W-L-T) mark at America First Field – home of the “RioT” Supporters Group umbrella – equates to a 1.91 points per game average and a 0.679 win pct, one of the truly amazing value proposition in North American sporting landscape today!
For the 2024 season and beyond, Real Salt Lake’s Blitzer / Smith ownership groups have partnered to bring the National Women’s Soccer League back to Utah, as Utah Royals FC return in the Spring. Led by Head Coach Amy Rodriguez, President Michelle Hyncik and Sporting Director Kelly Cousins, URFC aims to seize upon the success the NWSL enjoyed during its first iteration on the Wasatch Front from 2018-20 and grow the game to even greater heights going forward. Led by visionary sports business entrepreneur Jess Gelman – the founder of the Sloan Sports Analytics Institute, along with innovative NBA executive Daryl Morey – Utah Royals FC blazes new trails in 2024.
In 2015, the club expanded its development pyramid with the addition of Real Monarchs SLC, one of several MLS-operated clubs playing in the USL Championship, the United States' Division II setup. The Monarchs boast a pair of titles in its brief history, as the 2017 USL Championship Regular-Season champions, later winning the USL Championship title in 2019. For the 2022 season and beyond, Real Monarchs compete in the newly-launched “MLS NEXT Pro” as part of a joint United States and Canada endeavor to complete the professional player pathway by connecting youth academies in MLS NEXT to first teams in Major League Soccer. The 2024 campaign will see the Monarchs represent the Club in the historic Lamar
Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a tourney open to teams from all levels of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, the first trophy hoisted back in 1914.
The entire competitive RSL setup, which includes nearly 70 players representing the RSL Academy’s U-15 and U-17 teams, calls the expansive Zions Bank Training Center in Herriman, Utah their daily training home. With five world-class grass fields, two indoor turf fields, a residential dormitory, the STEM-based RSL Academy High School and the 5,000-seat Zions Bank Stadium located on a 42-acre campus, Utah’s sporting future is bright.
The RSL Community Foundation was established in 2016, created with the goals of being active in the community year-round, utilizing the popularity and reach of RSL, the Royals, the Monarchs and the Academy in promoting health and wellness in children throughout the region, engaging supporters of soccer to raise funds and volunteer time for various local initiatives.
2024 RSL Full-Season Ticket Packages NOW ON SALE at www.RSL.com or by calling 844.Real.Tix.
