Why now was right time for Utah native Taylor Booth to return home to Real Salt Lake

HERRIMAN — Taylor Booth always knew he wanted to play for Real Salt Lake, his hometown club where he played in the academy system from 2016-18 before joining Bayern Munich's youth team when he was a teenager in 2019.

He didn't know when. He didn't know how or under what mechanism or circumstance.

But those circumstances came to a head this week.

The 25-year-old midfielder and U.S. youth international returned to his boyhood club on loan from FC Twente in the Dutch Eredivisie, marking a full circle moment on Booth's career.

But before he signed on the dotted line, the native of Eden, Utah, had to consider a lot of factors to bring him back to the state where his family still lives and his younger brother Zach is currently on loan from Dutch club Excelsior.

"It's been a very busy past 4-5 days for me," he said after training recently at the RSL Academy complex in Herriman. "But to finally be here, first time on the pitch today, it's an amazing feeling. It feels surreal to be back. I couldn't be happier.

"It's an opportunity that I had to take at this point in my career," Booth added. "To be back home and to be back with RSL is a special feeling for me."

Years in the making

Real Salt Lake has kept in touch with both Booth brothers since they departed the academy nearly a decade ago, Taylor for Germany's Bayern Munich and Zach for Leicester City in England.

But conversations took a new turn about 18 months ago, when Taylor Booth's representation began conversations around a return to the Beehive State.

After scoring eight goals in 58 appearances over three years with FC Utrecht, Booth opted to stay in the Eredivisie and signed a three-and-a-half year contract with Twente last February.

Booth, who has been plagued by injuries in the past two seasons that helped limit him to 18 appearances at Twente last season, never strayed far from RSL front-office conversations. And that itch to return to Salt Lake was left unscratched.

"It's something that we've been keeping in mind for a couple of (transfer) windows," RSL sporting director Kurt Schmid said, "and it lined up in this one to make it work."

The discussion around Booth's loan involved plenty of angles, but personal and professional. One key item: Major League Soccer's upcoming switch to the European calendar, which will include a shortened "sprint" season next spring before aligning with most leagues in Europe on summer-to-spring format that will kick off in late July 2027 with MLS Cup in May 2028.

Booth's loan will keep him with Salt Lake through the end of the 2026 season, as well as the 2027 sprint season. The timing allows Booth, who was married in May, to stay in Utah through Twente's season before RSL could exercise a purchase option on a potential permanent transfer.

The summer window landing spot was "a lot easier," Schmid acknowledged — for both Booth and other transfers Real Salt Lake engages with clubs around the world.

"The summer window is everyone's offseason window in Europe, and the clubs that we would typically sell to are those clubs," he said. "Aligning our offseason with their offseason is really important for both an in- and outgoing transfer situations."

Brother's keeper, mom's approval

For Booth, there were also personal factors pushing him back toward his native home. The stress of injuries, rehab and being pulled in and out of the lineup at Twente took its toll over the past two years.

"I kind of lost a little bit of the love for the game," he said. "This opportunity came up, and it was the perfect opportunity for me to come back, to enjoy football again, to play with a smile on my face, and have so many good people around me. But getting back to playing is the most important."

He also had to convince his little brother, though the 22-year-old Zach Booth is a couple inches taller than big bro. Both liked the idea of playing on the same team since they were teenagers, and the first time in their professional careers.

They liked it more after a game Feb. 4, 2024, when Zach Booth scored his first goal for FC Volendam before Taylor Booth notched his first career hat trick in FC Utrecht's 4-2 win in an Eredivisie showdown.

"It all happened so fast, and it was also something that wasn't as easy as people think, to put two brothers on the same team," Taylor Booth said. "We didn't want to get in each other's way. But I sat down with Zach, and he was super open about the opportunity."

There was one Booth that was easier to convince of the move: the brothers' mom Kelli, a former college soccer player herself.

"She told me, selfishly, I want you home as soon as possible," Taylor said. "But she knows how me and Zach are as people; Zach is a very easy-going person and easy to get along with."

Zach Booth started six of 11 matches in MLS play, scoring a goal in 435 minutes, and began to seize a starting spot at right wing back for RSL during Leagues Cup when he scored against Atlante back in early August.

But the 22-year-old winger suffered a hamstring injury in the opening minutes of a league match against Minnesota United, and he's now targeting a return next month before RSL's final stretch of the regular season.

Booth brothers coming

That will give Taylor Booth time to adjust to the team after he spent most of the preseason with Twente before arriving in Salt Lake City. Away from the training facility, they can be brothers and — as they've been — close friends.

But once they step on the pitch, the duo are teammates and co-workers, Taylor said.

"I think it's important for me and him to find the balance of being brothers, teammates and colleagues at the same time," he said. "As soon as we leave the facility, we're brothers — and I'll give him crap for being the older brother. But as soon as we arrive and once we're on the pitch and stuff, we're teammates — and I have to treat him like one and respect him like one as well."

Professionally, the lineup should work out, though. Zach Booth was in position to take over at right wing back following Zavier Gozo's club-record transfer to Crystal Palace in England's Premier League; and while Taylor Booth has played on the wing for several years, he says he's more comfortable playing in the middle of the field, as a box-to-box midfielder.

Could two Booths represent their hometown club at the same moment? While Zach has been rehabbing a hamstring injury, Taylor has been doing extra work with Salt Lake assistants as he tries to get up to full fitness in time for the stretch run of the MLS regular season.

"For me, it's crazy that we are both even here," Taylor Booth said. "We're from a tiny town in Eden, Utah, so for both of us to even go professional is amazing. Now to be playing on the same team, and hopefully at some point on the same pitch, it's a surreal feeling.

"I get goosebumps thinking about it."

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