Real Salt Lake Players, Past & Present, Vouch For Club To Make Pablo Mastroeni Full-Time Manager

SALT LAKE CITY – Immediately following the heartbreaking 2-0 loss to Portland in the Western Conference Finals a number of players shared their hope and desire to have Pablo Mastroeni named as the full-time manager ahead of the 2022 season.

Kreilach & Onuoha Share Their Thoughts

“Great human being, great head coach, a great motivator, the guy put us all on the same page the last three months,” Damir Kreilach said. “I do not want to say that we were not on the same page under Freddy [Juarez] because of the run we had Freddy [Juarez] had success as well but now we are talking about Pablo [Mastroeni] and all that I can say about him is all the best and I really hope that he is going to get the chance but as I said earlier it will not be up to me.”

Former Manchester City and Real Salt Lake center back Nedum Onuoha flew in from Manchester to be with his former teammates ahead of the Western Conference Final and he issued his opinion on the matter as well.

“I spoke with him earlier and I think he understands the club, we have seen it now for a period of time. It seems like the players are playing for him, he wants the job and this is the furthest we have been in the playoffs for quite a few years now, that cannot be understated,” Onuoha stated. “But I think if he is somebody that wants the job he should definitely be in contention because for how he has managed to get the team to this point you know a lot of people would be desperate to play in a Western Conference Final but he has done it with an arm tied behind his back essentially.”

GM Elliot Fall

Finally, General Manager Elliot Fall, the man who will be making the decision, shared insight into when the announcement will be made.

When do you anticipate @realsaltlake announcing the new manager?

This is what GM Elliot Fall had to say immediately following the loss to Portland over the weeekend. #RSL pic.twitter.com/oMRY8ni5pe

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) December 7, 2021

“That is one of the obvious major off-season decisions, we will sit down and make that decision and make the announcement as soon as possible. We have gone through a long process, as we have talked about many times, we have talked to a lot of candidates and have gone through a very thorough process and feel really good about where things are so now we just have to make the final decision and move forward.

Expected Timeline

Real Salt Lake is in the midst of announcing roster decisions and 2021 season exit interviews. Already, a long list of seven players has already been informed that their 2022 contracts will not be picked up by the club.

As roster decisions continue to be made public, the club will likely announce who the new manager is by the end of the calendar year.

Real Salt Lake will report to camp midway through January of 2022.