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SANDY — Luis Gil took the surprising trade of long-time mentor Alvaro Saborio hard upon learning the Costa Rican striker had been traded to D.C. United in exchange for Luis Silva.
It wasn't any easier for the RSL technical staff.
Exactly eight years to the day that Real Salt Lake pulled off a monumental trade that sent Mehdi Ballouchy to Colorado in exchange for Kyle Beckerman, the club sent its all-time leading scorer to the nation's capital.
"It was big for me, personally. I took it a little hard," Gil said after training Thursday. "(Saborio has) been a mentor to me through my years here. I came into the league with him, and he's one of the few guys who always tried to be positive with me on my down days."
Still, the 21-year-old RSL midfielder knows how trades work.
"It's part of the game. Friends come and go, teammates come and go and you make new teammates along the way," Gil said.
RSL technical director Craig Waibel, who jokingly said he was "running on coffee and cream" after spending all night formalizing the trade, also lamented sending off the first designated player in RSL history. But the deal is part of a series of plans that could see RSL get younger and turn over one of the oldest rosters in Major League Soccer the past few years.
"In the planning with the coaching staff, we need to make some moves," Waibel said. "It's been a frustrating season for a lot of reasons: lack of selection, injuries, all that. But it came a time that as I look down the road, it was the right time to start considering moving Sabo. In the last week, things started to make sense. I would've had no problem having him here through the end of the year.
"But this made the most sense for the club and for Sabo's individual career. He can go to a new club and get a few more years."
Waibel stressed the decision to trade Saborio had nothing to do with a recent coaching decision to suspend him one game before the Gold Cup for personal reasons.
"Behavior in a professional environment is dealt with as it goes," Waibel said. "Anything that happened prior to this was dealt with. Sabo, Jeff and myself were on the same page and anything prior to be dealt with has been dealt with. This happened because it is the right thing for our club right now."
In the short term, RSL exchanges a 33-year-old known goal-scorer for a 27-year-old who scored 11 goals a year ago as one of DC's top goal-scorers before dropping off due to injuries and other concerns in 2015.
The Salt Lake club also frees up significant salary cap and a future move for a big player could be on the horizon, Waibel added.
"This gives us the opportunity to get Luis Silva, but it also opens up cap space to make another move," Waibel said. "We'll surely be looking at that. We can add talent now that will be with us for years to come."
Silva, who is in the final year of his current contract, could be among those plans, though. RSL traded one player in his last contract year with another, a fact noted by Waibel.
Among Silva's best days include his rookie season of 2012 in Toronto, when he had five goals and five assists while partnering with new RSL teammate Joao Plata. As a college player in Southern California, Silva also rotated between defensive midfield to center back and wing forward, where he settled in for United.
That versatility is what most excites RSL head coach Jeff Cassar.
"At the end of the day, he's just a very good soccer player," Cassar said of Silva. "He can find his way on to the score sheet, whether it's through goals or assists. But if you look at his career plane, even through college, he's been very versatile."
Cassar admitted excitement over Silva's future role, though the forward is considered doubtful to play in Saturday's home game against Houston Dynamo. Silva could make his debut on the Wasatch Front on Pioneer Day against Sporting Kansas City, or he could wait until Aug. 15 against Portland.
After all, Cassar also has to take note of how the attacking player fits into the team, even as Silva described himself as "85-90 percent" healthy to his new head coach in a phone conversation.
From the player's standpoint, fitting in will be easy, Gil added.
"We've got a lot of great guys in the locker room. He'll love it with us," he said. "We'll have a fun time, but we're also going to be serious, as well."
Saborio's departure will be felt amongst RSL players and staff. But that's the name of the business, a fact stressed several times during a somber news conference at Rio Tinto Stadium.
"When these decisions are made, they are never easy, especially with a person who has meant so much to our club and to our fan base," Cassar said of Saborio. "He won a championship, he's been very instrumental in what RSL is about. It's not easy making these decisions. He's scored many important goals for us.
"It was not easy to make this move."
Contributing: Ben Schroeder
