Real Salt Lake have named Freddy Juarez head coach and Elliot Fall general manager, the club announced Tuesday. Juarez had been interim head coach since August 11 and Fall had been interim GM since September 27.
The club went 7-4-2 under Juarez after Petke was initially suspended on July 27. RSL made it to the Conference Semifinals of the Audi 2019 MLS Cup Playoffs, losing to eventual champions Seattle Sounders. Juarez got his start with the club as an academy coach in 2010 before being promoted to Real Monarchs head coach in 2015 then serving as an assistant for the first team since 2017.
“When you look at Freddy and the progression that he has taken, he has the natural heart to develop. He will constantly develop players and help them improve their game and he’s done that for 10 years,” Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen said in a club statement. “Players love to play for Freddy. He’s a father figure and he’s respected. He’s beloved and that’s hard to find in a coach.”
Fall, like Juarez, has been with RSL for many years. He got his start with the club in 2007 before being promoted to assistant GM in 2013. At 34-years-old, he's currently the youngest GM in MLS.
“It’s a huge job," Fall said. "It’s a lot of responsibility. This is a club that I’ve grown up in, a club that I’ve been a fan of and a club that I’ve worked my entire career in. I’m really excited to get going and start building a winner. I’ve had the honor of working under a lot of special people here. Working directly for Garth Lagerwey, Jason Kreis, Bill Manning and Craig Waibel, I’ve had a lot of people to learn from and seen a lot of success along the way. I feel like I have a good idea of what success looks like and now we’ve got to keep pushing ourselves forward.”
Real Monarchs GM Dan Egner has been promoted to technical director while Tony Beltran has been hired as assistant GM.
