SANDY, Utah (Friday, May 31, 2019) – Real Salt Lake FW Jefferson Savarino has been called to the Venezuelan National Team for the 2019 Copa America in Brazil. Venezuela is in Group A, facing Peru (June 15), Brazil (June 18) and Bolivia (June 22).
Savarino will be available on Saturday when Real Salt Lake faces the New York Red Bulls before joining his country ahead of the quadrennial CONMEBOL tournament. The tournament runs from June 14-July 7 with teams from South America and Asia, with Qatar and Japan participating as invited teams from outside of CONMEBOL.
“Copa America is such a prestigious tournament and for Jefferson to have the opportunity to represent his country on that stage is tremendous,” RSL General Manager Craig Waibel said. “He continues to develop on and off the field and this is a great reward for his work.”
Now in his third season with Real Salt Lake, Savarino has three goals and one assist in 12 matches this season. In 66 career MLS regular season matches, he has 16 goals and 17 assists. In his first season in 2017, he had six goals and five assists in 22 matches. He followed that up with seven goals and a team-leading 11 assists in 32 matches in 2018. He initially came to RSL on loan from Zulia in Venezuela, where he started his professional career in 2013.
Savarino, 22, made his international debut at Rio Tinto Stadium, coming on as a substitute in a friendly against the U.S. on June 3, 2017. He now has seven caps for Venezuela.
Real Salt Lake faces the New York Red Bulls on Saturday at Red Bull Arena. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. MT with live coverage on KMYU, the KSL TV app and KSLSports.com.
