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SANDY — Real Salt Lake made its second move of the transfer deadline Thursday, signing 22-year-old Paraguayan midfielder Braian Ojeda on a year-long loan from Nottingham Forest.
Head coach Pablo Mastroeni said he was confident the team could sign three players in positions of need before Thursday's deadline, and the signing of Ojeda gives the team a midfielder to pair with forward Danny Musovski, who was signed Wednesday. The last position of need Mastroeni mentioned was an outside back.
"Braian is a dynamic, two-way midfielder who will bring another option to our already talented group in the center of the pitch," general manager Elliot Fall said in a press release. "He is a player hungry to compete and develop, while also bringing valuable international experience from his time with Nottingham Forest and Paraguay."
Coming to the RioT soon. pic.twitter.com/UlWynrXyxY
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) August 4, 2022
Ojeda is the first-ever RSL player to be added to its roster via Major League Soccer's U-22 initiative, which encourages teams to use their rosters to develop young talent by allowing them to sign up to three players, aged 22 and younger, at a reduced salary budget charge. Nottingham Forest said the loan provides RSL an option to buy Ojeda permanently at the end of the season.
Ojeda made his professional debut at 18 with Paraguay's oldest and most historically-dominant club, Olimpia, where he made 40 appearances from 2018-21, while also spending time on loan in Argentina with first-division side Defensa y Justicia, appearing in 12 matches.
Nottingham Forest signed Ojeda in August 2021 to a four-year deal and he appeared in three matches as the team fought its way back from the EFL Championship league to the top-flight English Premier League for the upcoming season. Ojeda also made his senior international debut for Paraguay during the country's World Cup qualifying matches in 2021.
Ojeda becomes the youngest international on Real Salt Lake's roster, one year younger than Argentine midfielder Pablo Ruiz. He is also the Claret and Cobalt's second-ever Paraguayan international, joining 2016 forward Pedro Baez.
