Real Salt Lake Academy Aspires For North America Supremacy In Youth Soccer Development

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – At the heart of any credible professional soccer club lies an Academy that thrives in silence. Real Salt Lake understands the benefits that can blossom from an Academy that operates at a high efficiency and is constantly looking to better their system that has proven itself on many occasions.

Which explains why the club has invested multiple millions of dollars into a world-class facility titled Zions Bank Real Academy.

La Masia

All smiles at the Grande! We’re glad to be back! 😄🔵🔴 pic.twitter.com/8tjVhm3gfJ

— Barça Residency Academy (@BarcaAcademyAZ) January 12, 2021

Many of the best clubs in world soccer have an established youth system that acts as a pipeline for the first team. Barcelona is a great example. Arguably the biggest club in the world game boasts the most prized Academy that has produced some of the world greatest players including Lionel Messi, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Pique, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and many others.

La Masia is what they call the Academy in Barcelona and is Catalan for “The Farmhouse.”

The RSL Farmhouse

RSL is trying to replicate, to a certain degree, the development and talent that the likes of Barcelona produces.

RSL, alongside the vast majority of MLS clubs, entered the Academy game late. RSL’s Academy has only been present for a decade, Barcelona founded their Academy in 1979.

Nonetheless, despite the RSL Academy’s short-term existence, the club has long-term goals.

The club's vision for the @RSLAcademy

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) January 13, 2021

Recently, RSL has scoured the globe for talented youth coaches and executives who can offer guidance in establishing North America’s greatest youth soccer program.

International Signings

Tom Spall was hired by RSL as the Academy Director following a 30-year career in England working alongside some of the countries brightest young stars. Spall was formerly an Academy Coach for Barnsley F.C. and Sheffiled United and has also worked with the Elite Player Performance Plan in England and Doublepass in the U.S. and Canada.

Arnold Rijsenburg was hired by RSL in November of 2019 and acts as the Director of Coaching for the RSL Academy. His expansive history within the youth game includes stints at Standard Liege and RSC Anderlecht in Belgium where he trained the likes of  eventual Belgium World Cup participants Axel Witsel, Marouane Fellani, Nacer Chadli and Romelu Lukaku, along with other internationals Christian Benteke (Belgium), Reginal Geroux (Haiti) and Mehdi Carcela (Morocco), among others.

“So what my job is to make sure that we have a program for our academy program that we follow. I watch over the program. I make the program, schedule the program,” Rijsenburg said during an interview with KSL Sports. “Now, for instance, one of the things that I’m busy with is we need a new under 17 coach. I’ve been interviewing people for hours over the last couple of days. So that’s for that been doing. Assisting all training sessions, games. Busy with professional staff for our academy players, so yeah, football all day soccer.”

Changes are imminent as Rijsenburg has spent the previous year developing relationships with other youth soccer clubs in the Utah area.

The youngest signing in club history

— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) January 12, 2021

“One of the things that struck me is that that there is no relationship from RSL with with the local clubs,” Rijsenburg said. He continued to explain how RSL is the only professional soccer club in the state of Utah. RSL has created a residential Academy which may as well be inexistent if the club does not have relationships with other youth programs in the area.

“I worked in Belgium. So lets take the example of Belgium, Brussels, you have Anderlecht, the biggest club from Belgium, and all the clubs around Brussels they’re almost working with Anderlecht, they they they feel honored working with Anderlecht. We have one professional team in Utah and I cannot understand that there is no relationship with each other. I found out about Utah Arsenal, three weeks ago, I think, that there is a club that goes by Utah Arsenal, they have 5000 kids, 5000, there must be one good one.”

The GM Is Always Watching

The emphasis on the Academy reaches the top of the RSL pyramid. RSL General Manager, whose main responsibility lies with putting a first-team roster together that is good enough to challenge for MLS supremacy, spends many hours throughout the week dissecting the Academy. His sales pitch is persuasive for any young soccer player who is daring to dream.

Our very own Sean Latourrette with a tribute to #DiegoMaradona pic.twitter.com/q98OgZl3kS

— Real Salt Lake Academy (@RSLAcademy) December 1, 2020

“So, you know, first and foremost, you need talent, you need talented players in your system, you need players who have the desire and the ability to develop into elite players,” Fall said. “Then you need a staff that have the ability and understanding of how to provide that environment for those players. You then need a facility and an infrastructure that can provide that environment so for us, you know, that is the fact that that we have a fully residential program. You know, we have our all of our academy players have the ability to live on site, you know, we provide them three meals a day. We have the ability for them to train at all hours of the day, you know, we have five outdoor fields and to full size indoor fields and all of the you know, the ancillary facilities, the weight rooms and the training rooms and, and then we have the school on site.”

Worth The Purchase

RSL is currently undergoing a search for a new owner. The Academy alone should entice many interested and qualified buyers to learn more. When European giant Eintracht Frankfurt visited Utah for a mid-season friendly in 2018, the German club could not believe just how extravagant the facilities were.

A small market club on the hillside of Herriman, Utah is slowly but methodically building a world-class youth soccer program that will likely produce multiple world class players over the coming years.