‘Patience has paid off’: Lineker Rodrigues works his way into RSL’s plans

SANDY — Lineker Rodrigues waited more than a year for his first-team contract.

He waited one day for his first RSL goal.

Real Salt Lake signed Rodrigues to an MLS deal Aug. 10, less than a year after he finally made his professional debut for the Monarchs. The contract has club options through 2029.

The following night, Rodrigues started against FC Juárez.

In the second half, DeAndre Yedlin received the ball on the right and Rodrigues darted in front of his defender at the near post. Yedlin found him, Rodrigues finished, and the 24-year-old had his first RSL goal in a 3-0 Leagues Cup victory.

“It meant a lot,” Rodrigues said. “The whole last year that I was unable to play, I got a bunch of texts saying, ‘Hey, patience has paid off.’ So it’s just that feeling of it has paid off. So it’s really nice.”

RSL selected him out of Marshall in the first round of the 2025 MLS SuperDraft, but a lengthy delay converting his student visa to a player visa kept him from beginning his professional career for most of his rookie season.

By the time he was cleared to play for the Monarchs, there wasn’t much season left.

Five appearances. Four from the bench. 104 minutes.

He still scored two goals, the first six minutes after coming on for his professional debut at SKC II.

And when Rodrigues was asked who first convinced him he could become a professional soccer player, he started with his first coach.

“My dad was my first coach, so can’t forget about him,” Rodrigues said.

His father played professionally in Brazil and loved English legend Gary Lineker so much he named his son after him.

But Rodrigues immediately mentioned another coach.

“I had a great coach in high school when I first got to the U.S., Coach Michael Garcia, and he helped me through,” Rodrigues said. “He helped me learn English and everything from off-the-field to on-the-field stuff. So big shout-out to him.”

Garcia still coaches at Cypress Ranch High School, about an hour northwest of Houston. 

Around RSL, Rodrigues is “Linny.” To Garcia, he’s still “Santos.”

And more than a decade later, Rodrigues says he still plays FIFA “every day” with Garcia’s assistant coach, Stephen Groppell.

The kid they called Santos

Garcia remembers the day a skinny Brazilian freshman named Lineker Rodrigues dos Santos first showed up at Cypress Ranch.

Rain forced practice indoors that day.

Within five minutes, Garcia knew.

“He was by far the best technical player we had,” Garcia said. “We had some pretty good players, but he just stood out technically above everyone else.”

Rodrigues had grown up playing futsal in Brazil and arrived in the United States with very little English. Garcia remembers him living primarily with his mother while waiting for his father to join them.

“The main thing I did really was just create an environment for him where he felt safe and where he could grow,” Garcia said.

He remembers a player so far ahead of high school competition that he was scoring bicycle kicks, pulling off rainbows and occasionally scoring a hat trick by halftime. Sometimes Garcia would sit him anyway, searching for ways to challenge a player who could dominate without necessarily developing.

“If you told him to go run 15 miles and we’re about to play, it didn’t matter,” Garcia said. “He would do it.

“Besides the fact that he was such a good player, he was just such a great kid to coach. He was just going to do whatever you asked him because he trusted you.”

But what sticks with Garcia most is how Rodrigues handled the attention.

Opposing players sometimes asked Rodrigues for autographs after high school games. His teammates knew he was special. Rodrigues seemed almost embarrassed by the attention.

“He was just so humble,” Garcia said.

RSL captain Rafael Cabral sees much the same person today.

“He’s a simple guy. He’s very simple, and as I said, he’s always open to listen, and he’s very smart,” Cabral said.

Cabral also recognizes something of himself in Rodrigues’ drive to improve.

“I was young once, no?” Cabral said. “So I think the hunger the young players have, because when they have the opportunity to play soccer, it’s not just about their dream, but their family’s dream as well.”

Work, even when nobody notices

Rodrigues finally got to play regular minutes with the Monarchs in 2026, developing under head coach Mark Lowry while leading the team with five goals and two assists. He also started frequently getting opportunities to train with RSL.

“The team here does a really good job bringing players up from the Monarchs to train with the first team,” Rodrigues said. “Getting that feeling of being with them once a week or twice a week, it’s nice, and it builds up your confidence for moments like this.”

The most useful advice he got from Lowry was straightforward.

“Just work hard and everything else will come.”

His MLS debut came May 23 at Minnesota. He later started at St. Louis.

Then came Leagues Cup.

Against Atlante, Rodrigues entered in the 82nd minute with RSL leading 3-0.

He didn’t score. He didn’t get an assist.

But on RSL’s fourth goal in the 90th minute, Rodrigues pressured the Atlante player in possession from one side while Pablo Ruiz closed from the other. Ruiz picked his pocket, took the ball and scored.

The pressure doesn’t appear in the box score. Rodrigues wants more contributions just like it.

“When you have people like Sergi (Solans) and Luna and Guilavogui, the work you do off the ball for them to have the ball is essential for the success of the team,” Rodrigues said. “So I just try to keep working on that.”

Three days later, Rodrigues got his own goal.

Rodrigues thought he played poorly in the first half against Juárez.

RSL head coach Pablo Mastroeni didn’t necessarily disagree.

“In the first half, there was maybe a bit of nerves,” Mastroeni said. “In the second half, he really grew into the game.”

“I just tried to focus back on the game and try to do what I’ve been doing with the Monarchs and just work, work, just work and hope that things happen my way,” Rodrigues said.

First, he hit the post.

Then he scored.

Garcia was watching from Texas. Rodrigues told his old coach he thought his first half was below his standards.

“Look, Santos, just because your game’s not shining, you just keep working and doing the things the coach tells you,” Garcia told him. “They take notice.”

Let Lineker be Lineker

As a teenager, Rodrigues spent time in the Houston Dynamo’s MLS academy, where he says coaches wanted him playing defensive midfield.

Garcia told him he could become a better attacker by learning to defend.

“The one thing that kind of helped him here, and I think he really appreciated, is I allowed him that freedom to be himself,” Garcia said.

“Even at academy, they didn’t allow him to be Santos. They didn’t allow him to be comfortable.”

RSL is asking Rodrigues to improve some of those same defensive qualities today: positioning without the ball, physicality and getting “stuck in a little more.”

But when Rodrigues was asked what Mastroeni and his staff have told him not to change, the answer could have come from Garcia.

“Just playing free, being myself and doing what I can.”

Cabral points to Rodrigues’ left foot, his ability to play between the lines and his willingness to run and press.

Mastroeni sees a player who can offer RSL something slightly different than what they already have.

“The one thing that makes Linny unique, even when he plays as a 10, is he’s really a second striker,” Mastroeni said. “He’s got a nose for goal. He’s always poaching, and scores goals like he did today all the time in training.”

For Mastroeni, the biggest remaining adjustment is adapting those tools to the speed and physicality of the first-team game.

There are established players ahead of him.

But the Juárez match changed something.

“This performance tonight puts him right in the mix for selection,” Mastroeni said.

Garcia still talks to Rodrigues regularly.

“He’s one of those players that…it’s a lifelong relationship that we have,” Garcia said. “Anything positive that happens for him is always amazing to hear, and you always want the best for him.”

Asked what kind of player Rodrigues wants to become, his answer was simple.

“Just a player that keeps working hard and fighting to get his goals.”