August 4, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – Real Salt Lake News Release
HERRIMAN, Utah – Real Salt Lake today signed 32-year old DF Bryan Oviedo, a European-based Costa Rican international. With 12 Club seasons and 186 games played in England and Denmark with such storied clubs as Everton, Sunderland, Copenhagen and Nordsjælland, Oviedo arrives on the Wasatch Front as he prepares for Costa Rica’s 2022 FIFA World Cup participation this Winter in Qatar.
Oviedo appeared in just seven games as a teenager with legendary side Saprissa before moving to FC Copenhagen from 2010-12 for 30 appearances, with another 14 matches on loan to Nordsjælland in 2011. 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 titles.
From 2012-17, Oviedo made 50 appearances with Everton FC in England, including scoring an 86th-minute game-winner away at Manchester United in 2013, giving Everton its first win at Old Trafford in 21 years. Oviedo’s 2014 season was lost – as was his 2014 Costa Rican World Cup candidacy – after suffering a broken leg in Everton’s fourth-round FA Cup tie against Stevenage.
During the early 2017 winter window, Oviedo made a permanent move to Sunderland AFC, where he made 70 appearances and scored twice before returning to Copenhagen in the Summer window of 2019. When his contract expired with the Danish side this June, Oviedo had made 33 appearances for Copenhagen, helping his club qualify for UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2017-18.
Sixteen of Oviedo’s 71 total appearances for the Costa Rican international side have come during the 2021-22 calendar years, as Oviedo helped Los Ticos qualify for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, starting and playing a full 90 in the mid-June playoff against New Zealand, Costa Rica winning 1-0 to advance to Group E, which also includes Germany, Spain and Japan.
“Bryan is a left back who brings a wealth of experience and ability to our backline,” said Real Salt Lake General Manager Elliot Fall. “He’s a well-rounded player who is excellent on the ball and has physical attributes that will translate well to our league. In adding him to our roster, we now have one of the best groups of outside backs in MLS.”
Oviedo is the first Costa Rican to join RSL since FW Alvaro Saborio (2010-15, 63 goals in 127 matches) in 2015 and just the fifth overall to play with the Utah side. Others were MF…
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