Bryan Oviedo joins Real Salt Lake as the Club’s first Costa Rican signing since RSL legend Alvaro Saborio last donned the Claret-and-Cobalt in 2015. The defender comes to Utah having played in the top flights of Costa Rican, Danish and English football.
Here is everything you need to know about Oviedo’s career prior to joining RSL:
- Oviedo, 32, was born in Quesada, Costa Rica.
- He began his professional career in Costa Rica with Deportivo Saprissa where he made seven appearances in his first season.
- After just one year as a professional, Oviedo moved to Europe, signing with FC Copenhagen in Denmark’s Superliga. And during his first stint with Copenhagen, Oviedo scored two goals in 46 appearances.
- Oviedo won five trophies with Copenhagen in just two years, helping clinch the 2009-10 and 2012-13 Danish Superliga trophies, and the 2010-11 and 2011-12 Danish Super Cup.
- In the 2011 season Oviedo went on a short loan to FC Nordsjælland, winning the 2010-11 Danish Superliga.
- In August of 2012 Oviedo transferred to Everton in the English Premier League where he recorded two goals and nine assists in 68 matches played. One of his two goals came against Manchester United in December of 2013 off an assist from Romelu Lukaku, helping Everton earn its first win at Old Trafford in 21 years.
- Prior to the start of the 2017 season Oviedo moved to Sunderland AFC where would go on to make 70 appearances for the Black Cats.
- Most recently, Oviedo returned to FC Copenhagen during which he appeared in 40 matches and this past year he helped his club qualify for UEFA Champions League for the first time since the 2017-18 season.
- Internationally, Oviedo has earned 71caps for Costa Rica. He made his first appearance for Los Ticos in 2010 against Argentina. The Costa Rican was set to feature in his country’s 2014 World Cup campaign; however, he broke both his tibia and fibula in a FA Cup match for Everton causing him to miss the tournament. He’d get his World Cup chance in 2018 when he was named in Costa Rica’s 23-man squad headed to Russia. Oviedo would start two of Costa Rica’s three group matches, but Los Ticos would be eliminated finishing bottom of Group E behind Serbia, Switzerland and Brazil.
