Real Salt Lake and attacking midfielder Albert Rusnak have agreed to a new contract that will keep him under team control through 2022 and pay him an average of around $2 million per season, sources confirmed to MLSsoccer.com on Monday.
FOX analyst Stuart Holden reported during FS1’s broadcast of RSL’s 1-1 draw at Sporting Kansas City on Sunday that Rusnak agreed to a new deal that would make the 24-year-old Slovakian international the highest-paid player in club history.
The sources confirmed the bulk of Holden’s reporting on Monday and added the specifics about the length and terms of the deal. They said that the new contract is guaranteed through 2021 and includes a club option for 2022. Rusnak’s previous contract was guaranteed through 2019 and included a club option for 2020. According to the MLS Players Association, he was earning $907,280 this year under his old deal.
The sources said though it has been agreed upon, the deal has not yet been signed.
Rusnak didn’t start Sunday’s match at SKC due to what RSL called “personal reasons.” The sources confirmed Holden’s reporting that his absence from the XI was in part due to him declining to fly with the team from Salt Lake to Kansas City on Saturday morning while negotiations were ongoing. He joined RSL in Kansas City late Saturday night after the deal was agreed to, but he’d missed the team’s training session at Children’s Mercy Park earlier in the day. He played 29 minutes off the bench on Sunday.
Rusnak, who spoke multiple times earlier this season about his desire for a new contract, has 10 goals and seven assists in 29 regular season appearances this year. He had seven goals and 14 assists in 30 appearances for RSL last season, his first with the club following his January 2017 transfer from Dutch team FC Groningen.
Sixth-place RSL will look to stay above the Western Conference playoff line when they host the fourth-place Portland Timbers on Saturday at Rio Tinto Stadium (9:30 pm ET | TV & streaming info).
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