Armenia. His family. And Real Salt Lake.
Spend any amount of time around Yura Movsisyan and it becomes abundantly clear the things in his life that he takes the most pride in.
He wears his Armenian heritage like a badge of honor, welcoming Armenians into his inner circle with an open-armed brotherhood. Not all have experienced the same circuitous journey to American soil, but the refugees like him and his family hold a special place.
His family is ubiquitous in his everyday life. Whether it’s brothers or cousins visiting from California, where his family settled in the large Armenian community in the Pasadena area; his parents whose courage and determination brought the family from a war-torn region of Eastern Europe to a life without daily fears in southern California; or his wife and three children, each of whom is represented in one of his numerous tattoos.
Then there’s Real Salt Lake. From his original arrival with the club in September of 2007 in a trade with the Kansas City Wizards, to his return on loan in January, he has always spoken fondly of the club that he helped to the MLS Cup title in 2009 and helped launch his storied career at Randers in Denmark and Krasnodar and Spartak Moscow in Russia.
Now, after RSL bought his contract from Spartak this week, he can rest assured that Salt Lake City will be his home for some time.
“Real Salt Lake and Utah have been extremely welcoming for me and my family,” Movsisyan said. “It made us feel like this is home for us. This is where we want to be. That was the biggest thing that appealed to us.”
That high esteem that he holds the club and the region was a big reason why RSL General Manager Craig Waibel sought to bring Movsisyan to RSL on loan this year. That belief that was confirmed as Waibel saw him succeed on the field and become such an integral part of the locker room over the course of the Claret-and-Cobalt’s dramatic turnaround from a team last year that struggled to find the net and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2007, to the one that was in contention for the Supporters’ Shield with just two months to play in the season.
It’s a major move for an organization in a city that ranks at or near the bottom of Major League Soccer in terms of market size, but has still managed to be among the top teams in the league since lifting MLS Cup in 2009. After seeing the commitment that Movsisyan had to the club and the community, the hefty price tag that Owner Dell Loy Hansen would have to pay to transfer the striker from one of the world’s biggest clubs couldn’t deter Hansen and Waibel to make the deal happen.
“It’s an enormous compliment to our organization. It’s not just a player that wants to come, but an owner that continues to develop and make us a more complex club in the way we think and the way we sign players,” Waibel said. “Having a player who wants to come here is the ground work for why it was such a unified effort between the two clubs.”
Movsisyan shares the team goal-scoring lead this season with nine goals despite missing five matches due to injury. In 80 career matches with RSL, he has 24 goals, ranking seventh on the club’s all-time list, behind Alvaro Saborio (63), Javier Morales (49), Robbie Findley (36), Fabian Espindola (35), Joao Plata (30) and Kyle Beckerman (25).
“Yura has been an important part of this club. Obviously you can see what his quality has added to our roster and what it means for us getting results. He’s also very important for this community,” RSL Head Coach Jeff Cassar said. “Having him come back and show the love that he has for this club, this community and this state just shows what kind of person Yura is.”
