Yura Movsisyan’s anticipated return to Real Salt Lake is official.
The Utah club on Friday announced the addition of the Armenian international as a Designated player on loan from Russian club Spartak Moscow, pending receipt of his International Transfer Certificate, affirming speculation that he would make a return to the club where he played from 2007-09 before moving overseas to play in Denmark and Russia.
“For me, it’s been a long time I’ve been wanting to come back," said Movsisyan in a team statement. "Obviously Salt Lake was my first choice because it was such a great place for me and my family. I felt at home in Utah. Leaving with a championship – I want to come back and do that again.
"I want to win more championships with Salt Lake – with the club that I was part of the evolution. I was part of the team that went basically from the bottom to being champions. This is what I want to do again and what I’m excited about. For me, it’s an amazing thing to come back.”
The addition of the 28-year-old forward, the Russian Premier League’s co-leader in goals scored during the 2012-13 season with Spartak, brings a proven goalscorer to a club on the search for more production from its forward corps. RSL were the second-lowest scoring team in the league in 2015, with an average of 1.12 goals per game.
“Yura is a goalscorer," said RSL general manager Craig Waibel. "He’s always been a goalscorer and statistically speaking, his numbers are undeniably productive no matter where he’s played. He’s at an age right now and at a point of his life right now, he had a priority with his wife that they wanted to move back to the States. Everything just added up to make sense for him to come. We have an undeniable interest to bring in good soccer players and goalscorers and Yura is one of those. We believe he’s a double-digit goalscorer and we’re really excited to get him back out on the field and start producing.”
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After starting his professional career with Sporting Kansas City, who selected him with the fourth-overall pick in the 2006 SuperDraft out of Pasadena City College, Movsisyan helped RSL to their first and to date only MLS Cup in 2009. He scored 15 goals and recorded three assists in 48 regular-season appearances with RSL.
Following the MLS Cup win Movsisyan signed with Danish team Randers, where he scored 12 goals over 30 matches in a calendar year before moving on to Russia.
Since moving to the Russian Premier League, he scored 23 goals in 50 league appearances with Krasnodar and has 25 goals in four years with Spartak.
