Real Salt Lake plans to turn Zavier Gozo's record $15 million transfer fee into at least two roster additions before the MLS secondary transfer window closes Wednesday, Sept. 2.

"We've lost one starting-caliber player, but if we could gain two, well, then I would argue that we're in a better position to win," RSL president of soccer operations Jason Kreis told The Salt Lake Tribune on Tuesday, Aug. 25. "I think that we have some holes that we need to fill before the window closes."

The reported $15 million fee, according to KSL Sports, shattered the previous club record set by Andrés Gómez's $11 million sale (close to $13 million with add-ons). It's the second-highest up-front fee ever paid for an MLS homegrown player, behind only Ricardo Pepi's $20 million move to Augsburg.

For Sandy-based RSL, the windfall arrives at a precarious moment. The club sits eighth in the Western Conference with 28 points and has dropped points in six straight MLS matches. Backup wingback Zach Booth suffered a right hamstring injury 12 minutes into RSL's first match after Gozo's departure and is expected to miss six to eight weeks.

Head coach Pablo Mastroeni said Aug. 21: "We're stretched so thin across the back line."

Reinvesting in the pipeline

Beyond the immediate roster crunch, Kreis and academy director Jon Spencer are channeling Gozo's success into a long-term recruiting pitch. RSL ownership (Miller Sports and Entertainment) has invested in a national scouting network, and Spencer has added three performance coaches dedicated to player development at the academy level.

RSL now fields U-13, U-14 and U-15 teams that are all solely Utah-based, a deliberate strategy to identify local talent younger.

"There are others out there that are in Utah. So we've got to be really, really good and adept at identification and development of the players in Utah at younger ages," Kreis said.

The club leads MLS in all-time homegrown signees with 49, according to RSL's academy announcement. Tony Beltran, RSL's assistant sporting director, told MLSsoccer.com that under prior ownership the academy endured "a period of significant underinvestment" before new ownership in 2021 made "a concerted decision and effort to reinvest." Gozo's 2007 birth-year class was the first fully developed under those renewed resources.

Spencer put it simply: "Gozo is the advertisement."

Who's next?

Spencer named right winger Aiden Hezarkhani as the first player he sees following Gozo's path. Hezarkhani came to Utah from Irvine, California, in 2023 at age 16, debuted for RSL in 2025 at 17 and has not played with the Real Monarchs at all in 2026.

Midfielder Luca Moisa, who joined the academy from Las Vegas in 2021 at age 13, made his MLS debut earlier in 2026 at 17.

Assistant coach Jamal Campbell-Ryce, who coached Gozo at every level from the U-18s through the first team, said after RSL's Aug. 18 Leagues Cup win over Atlante that the transfer "should give everybody a massive vote of confidence." He named Booth, Moisa, Hezarkhani, Omar Marquez and Owen Anderson as the next wave, telling KSL Sports in the same interview: "There's a plethora of young ones coming through. Sometimes it just takes a little bit of time, and everybody's path's different."

The Sept. 2 deadline

RSL has made two moves ahead of the deadline: acquiring Georgian international winger Saba Lobjanidze from Atlanta United and loaning 19-year-old U.S. youth international midfielder Colin Guske from Orlando City for $50,000 in General Allocation Money, with an option to buy.

Sporting director Kurt Schmid was in Europe scouting potential targets as of Aug. 21, according to Mastroeni. Combined with the Sergi Solans extension through 2029-30 announced Aug. 25, the club is signaling a dual strategy: retain homegrown talent while cashing in selectively on players who earn Premier League interest.

The window closes in eight days.