There is not yet any official word on the news of the signing of Rachid El-Khalifi, the winger from the Dutch team SC Cambuur who reportedly impressed over the last couple of weeks in preseason training in Ventura, California. There is also no official confirmation of the impending arrival of Jean Carlos Solorzano as a trialist in Florida in a few days from his Costa Rican side LD Alajuelense. I will pass along word as soon as I receive confirmation of these.
However, here is the result of some of my research on the two:
El Khalifi
My Google-Dutch reading has me a little puzzled. Some reports indicate that he is coming back to Salt Lake this week. The direct quotes from El Khalifi were, "It went very well. The people at the club were also satisfied. There is already a two-year contract ready for me. This week I hope to hear the final go ahead". There seems to be some reference in this statement and in other reports to waiting for approval. Most likely this is just a formality and the contract will go off without a hitch. However, there is another option.
El Khalifi is currently under contract through June. Before he came on trial with Real Salt Lake he did so with the blessing of his club. I assumed that either the club would let him go on a free or that Real Salt Lake would need to wait until the summer to acquire his services. Could this be an issue that is still being sorted out?
Jean Carlos Solorzano
My Google-Spanish isn't much better than my Google-Dutch, but I did discover that Solorzano's current team, LD Alajuelense, is looking for a short loan of 1 year in order to give the player some additional experience. The preference of Major League Soccer is to sign players on two-year deals with a loan buyout agreement. While we rarely learn of the terms of these agreements, if Real Salt Lake were to sign the player it will be interesting to see if it's only a 1 year deal.
