Real Salt Lake’s Zavier Gozo could be on the move to Crystal Palace soon, The Athletic is reporting.
The two clubs have yet to reach an agreement, “but talks are advanced and are trending in a positive way,” and would be in the $15 million range, sources told The Athletic.
Aston Villa and Atletico Madrid were also reportedly interested in January.
The 19-year-old Gozo is Real Salt Lake’s second-leading scorer this season with six goals and four assists.
In late April, Gozo appeared on “MLS Countdown” and was asked about his “dream scenario” with “some big-time clubs in Europe sniffing around” him.
“In the summer window, obviously, I’d like to go to Europe,” he said. “That’s been my dream for as long as I could remember. I think that’s the perfect time for me to take the next step. And if I have that opportunity, I 100% want to take it.”
Gozo reiterated that hope to the Deseret News in May.
“I want to play in Europe,” he said. “I want to play in Champions League. I want to play in the biggest competitions and play for the best leagues. … I feel like I’m developing at a fast pace, and I think going over there, I would be able to adapt quick at the stage that I am.”
Real Salt Lake ownership on player transfers
Real Salt Lake ownership addressed transfers in a conversation with the Deseret News in July.
Steve Starks, CEO of The Larry H. Miller Company, emphasized that the organization’s priorities are to compete and win but it recognizes that player “transactions are part of the sport.”
“If we have the opportunity, as one example, to keep a player to finish a year, we want to prioritize winning and continuity and then see that transfer take place, if it has to happen, after the end of the season,” he said. “It’s not in our nature to compromise the competitiveness of the team midseason for a transfer fee if we can push that off.”
The organization wants “to honor” a player’s request to go to Europe, but, Starks said, it doesn’t “ever want the transactional nature to compromise our ability to compete.”
“We want to be a place where people come and get better and they can go on and fulfill their dreams and then come back at some point,” he said. “But we absolutely prioritize winning and competitiveness, even though it’s a much higher transaction sport.”
Though still new to soccer ownership, “there’s already some things that have become apparent” to the owners, Starks said, like finding a balance between the sport’s transactional nature and the club’s desire to be competitive.
“It’s too important to our fans to fall in love with a player and have a ton of momentum and then go on to a break and then sell that player and then it really hurts the team through the second half,” he said. “Let’s give our team, let’s give our organization, let’s give our community every chance to compete for titles. And then we can figure out the transactions at the right point, working with the player, their agent, other clubs.”
