Utah Native & Homegrown DF Farnsworth, SuperDraft Pick Kerkvliet Sign MLS Deals for 2025
HERRIMAN, Utah (Monday, February 17, 2025) – Real Salt Lake announced today that veteran homegrown DF Zack Farnsworth and recent MLS SuperDraft selection GK Max Kerkvliet have signed MLS contracts., making both eligible for the 2025 Real Salt Lake season.
A native of Cedar Hills, Utah, Farnsworth is coming off his best professional season to-date, logging 26 appearances last year with MLS NEXT Pro side Real Monarchs in Head Coach Mark Lowry’s first season with the club. Farnsworth had endured multiple ankle and lower leg injuries the previous three seasons after an excellent preseason in 2021.
A year ago, the RSL Academy product started 23 MLS NEXT Pro matches, appearing on the pitch for 2059 minutes and implementing a new Club-wide game model helping control and build possession out of the back line, usually as a centerback, Farnsworth completed 92.9 percent of his passes, providing six key passes throughout the season.
Farnsworth joined the then Casa Grande, Ariz.-based RSL Academy in 2017, part of one of the first classes to make the transition to the Zions Bank Real Academy in Herriman, Utah. During his four Academy years, Farnsworth scored seven goals in 58 matches at the U-16 through U-19 levels.
RSL has also signed its 2025 MLS SuperDraft first-round (21st overall) selection Kerkvliet, coming off his redshirt freshman season, departing the University of Connecticut after one season with the Huskies. Starting all 18 matches in the most recent NCAA campaign, the Houston native conceded just 13 goals, ranking 10th nationally with a goals against average of 0.77. Eight clean sheets in the campaign led Kerkvliet to capture three-time Big East Freshman of the Week honors and one Big East Goalkeeper of the Week award en route to All-Conference Third-Team recognition.
“I got a text before I saw online, and I was like ‘Oh my God’,” said an excited Kerkvliet, who chatted with RSL Goalkeeper Coach Mirza Harambasic in the run-up to the draft. “We saw my name and that RSL had just traded with Columbus, my heart started beating so fast I was so excited. It was everything I’ve imagined this moment would be, it was even better than that. I thought Utah was a great place to be, even before I got picked I thought this might happen, I’m super-thrilled to be on my way to Utah”
“RSL fans need to know they are getting someone that works hard, that I’m going to work as hard as I can every single day. Being at Salt Lake, I’m going to play my hardest every single day and really make the people watching and people paying to come watch, whether it's first-team or second-team, doesn’t matter, I’m gonna make you guys proud.”
Real Salt Lake departed this morning for San José, Costa Rica, where the Utah-based Club will kick off the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup on Wednesday, Feb. 19, against CS Herediano (Fox Sports 2, Vix, KSL Radio). Following the first leg of the Round One series against the Costa Rican Apertura champions, RSL will then continue on to San Jose, Calif., to kick off its 21st Major League Soccer season against Western Conference rival Earthquakes, now featuring iconic American coach Bruce Arena and former RSL striker Cristian Arango.
Real Salt Lake hosts Herediano in the second leg of its First Round CONCACAF Champions Cup series next week, on Wed., Feb. 26, with tickets still available at www.RSL.com/tickets, while its 2025 MLS home opener will be played the afternoon of Sat., March 1 against long-time West rival Seattle Sounders FC.
A year ago, RSL won 12 of 19 games played at home across all competitions, losing just three and returning its Sandy venue to its fortress-like home once again, while the Utah side’s 2024 road record – with 14 away results from a 5W-5L-9T record – was second only to the new standard achieved in 2023 (11-7-5 / 38 points all competitions).
Returning nearly 23,000 minutes played from last year’s roster, RSL looks to build upon a record-setting 2024 campaign, as last year saw RSL advance to the MLS Cup Playoffs for a sixth time in seven seasons (2020 the lone exception), and for the 14th time in the last 17 seasons since first qualifying in 2008 (2015, 2017 the other outliers). The 2024 MLS regular season reached an all-time high of 59 points for RSL, which finished third in the Western Conference and sixth overall in the 29-team MLS shield race, while also establishing a new all-time scoring high of 65 goals.
RSL opens 2025 seeking a fifth consecutive MLS postseason berth, and its seventh in the last eight years, on top of a highly-anticipated CONCACAF Champions Cup run, RSL’s fourth-ever and first participation in the continental competition since 2016.
Tickets and information for both competitions can be accessed at www.RSL.com/tickets.
