The departure of Jefferson Savarino at the end of the 2019 season saw one of Real Salt Lake’s most promising players leave for abroad, signing a deal at Atletico Mineiro.
The stated reasons, aside from the likely pay raise and time playing in a more prominent league, were around family. Savarino and his partner were new parents, and family in Venezuela reportedly hadn’t been able to see the child because of travel difficulty from Venezuela to the United States.
The reported $2 million transfer fee made him RSL’s most lucrative transfer, surpassing RSL’s previous record of Carlos Salcedo for something in the range of $600,000.