HERRIMAN, Utah — During the first week of the World Cup, Real Salt Lake Academy and Real Monarchs coaches Fito Ovalle and Nico Ovalle took viewers through different "Rules of the Game" for those wanting to learn more about soccer while watching the World Cup airing on FOX 13.
The coaches are also brothers who played professionally for 15 years, and now the journey has brought them back to their home state to coach.
“We were both lucky enough to have a dad that also played professional soccer,” Fito said. “He played for about 20 years. He ended his career here in Utah, and we kind of just picked off from there. Luckily we were growing up right at the time that RSL was forming, and honestly our whole entire dream was to play for RSL.”
Both were products of the RSL Academy and spent time with the Monarchs. Both had pro careers that took them global, with stops in Italy, Chile, Spain and Canada, even overlapping time spent at Toronto FC. Now, it's their turn to inspire the next generation.
“Now we’ve ended up here, after, you know, a total of 15 years playing pro,” Fito explained. “We’re back here coaching at the club that we started with... It’s pretty cool.”
It’s a full-circle journey, as they now coach young players who aspire to build careers like the ones they had.
“There is this goal of developing from here,” Nico said. “Developing from local and bringing kids in here and getting them to a point to where they can just make the dream happen — for us, it’s the most fulfilling thing to see.”
That commitment to development is reflected in every level of the club’s pathway.
“We just bring the best players in the country and invite them to be here residential,” Nico said about the RSL Academy. “This club is one of the MLS clubs that have developed the most homegrowns, which is a player that goes through their youth academy system to signing with the first team.”
