Pablo Mastroeni Joins Real Salt Lake Coaching Staff As Freddy Juarez Assistant
Jan 5, 2021, 8:41 AM | Updated: 8:59 am
(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Real Salt Lake Head Coach Freddy Juarez announced that he has hired former Colorado Rapids Head Coach Pablo Mastroeni as an assistant coach for the upcoming 2021 Major League Soccer Season.
RSL sent $50,000 in General Allocation Money to Houston Dynamo FC, where Mastroeni served as an assistant coach in 2020 to help lure him to Utah.
“Pablo is a great fit for us for three main reasons – his experience as a coach, his experience as a player and his reputation as a great person,” Juarez said. “He has the experience of being a head coach in this league. He understands the demands of this league as a coach and as a player. As a player, he brings a high pedigree as an international player that played in a World Cup. We are a young and developing team and we need people that have been there and seen it. On top of that, he’s a great person and for me that was important.”
Finally on the good side of the Rocky Mountain Cup
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) January 5, 2021
Mastroeni, 44, joins RSL’s staff after one season as an assistant coach with Houston Dynamo FC. Previously, he managed the Colorado Rapids for three seasons going 43-58-35 following a playing career that spanned 16 seasons in Major League Soccer.
During his playing career, the two-time World Cup participant spent 11 seasons with Colorado and captained the Rapids to the 2010 MLS Cup title. He ranks 25th in the all-time MLS record books with 334 career regular-season appearances.
“What really resonated with me was the culture that Freddy is building, how he goes about his work and how I’d be utilized,” Mastroeni said. “One of the things that I think is really important is culture. If the environment is great, you increase your odds of having a great campaign and I look forward to contributing to that with the staff at Real Salt Lake.”