Реал Солт Лэйк клубийн өсөх ирээдүйтэй тоглогч Завьер Гозо Английн Премьер лигийн Кристал Пэлас клубт шилжин очсоноор карьерынхаа шинэ шатыг эхлүүлж байна.
Реал Солт Лэйк клубийн залуу жигүүрийн тоглогч Завьер Гозо 15 сая ам.долларын гэрээгээр Кристал Пэлас клубт албан ёсоор нэгдлээ. Энэхүү наймаа нь Америкийн хөлбөмбөгийн лигийн (MLS) түүхэн дэх “homegrown” буюу өөрийн академиас бэлтгэгдсэн тоглогчийн хамгийн өндөр үнийн дүн бүхий хоёр дахь шилжилт болж байна. 19 настай тоглогч энэ улиралд Реал Солт Лэйк клубийн төлөө 6 гоол, 5 оновчтой дамжуулалт гүйцэтгэж, багийнхаа гол түлхүүр тоглогчдын нэг болсон юм.
Гозо нь Реал Солт Лэйк клубийн академиас гараагаа эхэлж, 2022 оны сүүлээр нөөц баг болох Реал Монаркс-д мэргэжлийн гэрээ байгуулсан билээ. Улмаар 2025 онд үндсэн багт дэвшин тоглохдоо Ла Эф Си-гийн эсрэг оруулсан гайхалтай “overhead-kick” гоолоороо олны анхааралд өртсөн. Тэрээр бэлтгэлийн үеэр шаргуу хөдөлмөрлөж, сул тал болох зүүн хөлөө хөгжүүлсний үр дүнд Атланта Юнайтед болон Спортинг Канзас Сити клубийн эсрэг тоглолтуудад гоц гойд тоглолтыг үзүүлсэн.
Реал Солт Лэйк клубийн дасгалжуулагч Пабло Мастроени түүнийг асар өндөр чадавхтай, хөдөлмөрч тоглогч хэмээн тодорхойлсон байна. Хэдийгээр Гозо одоогоор АНУ-ын шигшээ багийн бүрэлдэхүүнд дуудагдаагүй ч 2026 оны Дэлхийн аварга шалгаруулах тэмцээний өргөтгөсөн бүрэлдэхүүнд багтаж байсан юм. Кристал Пэлас клубт шилжин очсон нь түүний хувьд олон улсын түвшинд өөрийгөө батлах томоохон сорилт болох төлөвтэй байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
SALT LAKE CITY —Zavier Gozo and his family were walking through the concourses of a Real Salt Lake game just two years ago when the teenaged prospect’s mom, Esther, suddenly spotted someone wearing a jersey with ‘Gozo’ imprinted on the back.
The then-17-year-old played mostly for the club’s second team, the Real Monarchs, at the time, so it came as a bit of a shock to see someone with a shirt that bore his last name.
“That person has to be a fan,” she said to her young son.
There was simply no other way they’d have a jersey of an otherwise obscure mostly-second-team player. It was such a novelty, in fact, that Esther thought it’d be nice to memorialize the moment.
“Why don’t you go up to him and say hi? I can take a video of it,” Esther said.
Gozo approached the stranger.
“Hey, nice jersey,” the winger said.
The man smiled and nodded and turned back away. Gozo’s older brother, Elijah, a former RSL academy player who played at Utah Valley University, prompted the fan with a hint.
“This is Gozo,” he said, gesturing to the shirt. “This is him.”
“Pleasure,” the man said, then turned back away again. This time the body language was clear: the interaction is over.
The Gozo brothers walked away into the awkwardness.
“Clearly the shirt was a gift,” Zavier Gozo said with a smile and a chuckle in May, sitting on a couch with his mom and brother in the living room of their family home outside of Salt Lake City.
Things have changed in the years since.
The exciting, must-watch, goal-creating star was officially transferred Tuesday night to Crystal Palace for around $15 million, the second-highest up-front fee for an MLS homegrown player behind only U.S. striker Ricardo Pepi, who went for $20 million to Augsburg. (Vancouver Whitecaps homegrown Alphonso Davies was sold for $13.5 million to Bayern Munich, a fee that eventually reached $22 million with add-ons.)
The Gozo shirt might now be the most popular at Real Salt Lake games, with fans delighting over the 19-year-old who has become the team’s bonafide star. His face was on billboards around Salt Lake. He played in the MLS All-Star Game. Interactions with fans have changed dramatically since.
On a weekend this spring, Gozo went with his girlfriend to watch her little brother play a youth soccer game. He didn’t think anything of it and sat with her on the sideline. When one of the teams scored, however, the young goalscorer sprinted to the sideline and pointed at Gozo and then did a celebration. After the game, the Real Salt Lake star was swarmed by kids and parents wanting an autograph.
“Moments like that I’m like, ‘Wow,’” Gozo said.
The Utah native might need to get ready for getting recognized a whole lot more as a Premier League player. And, if he’s called in by U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino this fall, Gozo will no doubt become a household name for U.S. men’s national team fans.
While he played well for the U.S. under-20 team at the U-20 World Cup, Gozo has never been called into a senior national team camp. The winger is most definitely on the radar for his senior debut. He was on the supplemental roster for Pochettino’s 2026 team, meaning he was in contention for the World Cup squad, and it was clear after the tournament that the U.S. very well could have used his ability off the bench, even without previous international experience.
He has shown he’s capable of making a difference in games. The teenager had six goals and five assists in MLS before the move. Before the World Cup break, he ranked in the top 20 in MLS for goal contributions despite playing much of the season as a wingback.
For now, Gozo will head to the Premier League and look to make an impression with Palace, which finished 15th in last year’s table but also won their first European trophy: the 2025-26 UEFA Conference League.
Those around him have no doubt that he’s ready.
“He’s got the engine, he’s got the creativity and he plays both sides of the ball,” RSL teammate and two-time U.S. World Cup veteran DeAndre Yedlin told The Athletic in May. “He’s not going to cheat at all. Very, very honest player. And most importantly to me, just a very good, humble kid, which I think is the most important thing.”
Said RSL coach and 2002 World Cup veteran Pablo Mastroeni: “You can just see that the sky is the ceiling for this young man.”
Zavier Gozo celebrates in trademark style. (Rob Gray / Imagn Images)
Gozo was born in West Valley City, Utah, the son of Esther and Alban, an Ivory Coast native. Both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Esther and Alban met at a college basketball game in Utah.
Due to his Ivorian roots, Gozo grew up a huge fan of Didier Drogba. His father coached his early teams and Gozo honed his skills at home playing against his older brother.
“When I got to the academy, I was more ready than most people might have been to play and develop,” Gozo said. “Just having an older brother helped me learn things a lot faster, trying to keep up the speed and strength, because he was always stronger.”
A year after joining Real Salt Lake’s academy, he signed a pro contract with the team’s reserve side, the Real Monarchs, at the end of 2022. Gozo played 10 games for the Monarchs in 2023 and made his MLS debut as a 16-year-old, playing six minutes against the LA Galaxy. Gozo scored once for the Monarchs in that first season, then added another five goals in 2024.
His steady progression caught the eye of RSL’s first-team coaches, who brought him into the first team in 2025. Gozo played 25 games last season, starting 21, and scored four goals with three assists. An overhead-kick goal against LAFC put him on the map.
“I remember when he scored his first goal, the adrenaline rush was (so strong) I almost felt nauseous,” Esther recalled. “I was seriously buzzing that whole game. After that, it was just so exciting. He had just graduated high school that week, and it was like: to see his dreams coming true, after starting for a month, at that point it was (surreal).”
This offseason, Mastroeni started to hear stories about his teenage star showing up to the facility every day to get individual work in. RSL has an enormous indoor facility they call “The Box,” and Gozo would arrive every day to work on his 1-on-1 ability and finishing, especially with his weaker left foot. He also hit the weight room, adding 10 pounds of muscle to his 5ft 11in frame.
Gozo didn’t know that Mastroeni was getting reports about his individual work. It was meant to be a private effort. The teenager was intent on leveling up and finding that natural level of confidence on the field —something that drove him at every stage of his career prior.
“I feel like every time I would move up age groups or levels, when I went from the academy to the Monarchs, it was kind of like I would get there on a high and then be, like, shut down (by the increase in quality) a little bit,” Gozo said. “I needed it. I need to get up to the level. And then after a couple months I’ll be like, ‘OK, this is my level now. I can be there.’ I felt the same thing from the Monarchs to the first team. I would go to the first team and have a good training, but then feel like I’m not the best player here anymore. And then I’d have to work my way up again.”
By the start of this season, though, Gozo’s confidence was oozing out of him. Mastroeni wanted Gozo to work on his final product, and that started to come through from preseason.
“Last year he created, for himself and his teammates, probably two or three big chances a game, but he was having a hard time finishing,” Mastroeni said. “In preseason I saw him come cutting into his left foot and then hitting curlers, and I’m, like, ‘Last year he didn’t even have a left foot.’ And so fast-forward to our preseason, he scored a couple goals in preseason from a wing-back position. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this guy’s really turning it up’.”
Against Atlanta United in March, he showed some of those new layers to his game, bringing the ball down out of the air in stride, dribbling at and then past a defender and onto his left foot, where he curled a shot to the far post.
A golazo from @realsaltlake‘s Zavier Gozo 🔥
Watch on Apple TV: https://t.co/SM0ZwM1PEv pic.twitter.com/GEPkOLQq74
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 8, 2026
One month later against Sporting Kansas City, he received a pass at the top corner of the box, flicked it up to himself and snapped a volley inside the upper corner of the far post, a brilliant finish that doubled RSL’s lead.
Gozo laughed when asked about the goal. Was the flick-up intentional?
“It was 100 percent a bad touch,” the teenager said. “Obviously I was thinking about shooting already. I wanted to shoot, just take a touch and shoot first time. But then it popped up to me, so I was just like, I have to shoot it, still. I gotta shoot it one way or another.”
The finish spoke to the exciting element Gozo brought to the field. Gozo’s goals come in spectacular fashion, a nod to his willingness to try things. And the goals only added a layer of confidence for him and his team. Players started to look to find Gozo on the field as often as possible, and RSL moved him around the pitch, from his wingback position, to a winger role and even inside as a No. 10.
Gozo led the team in high-speed running and in sprint distances and rarely came off the field. Mastroeni pointed out that in the third game of a week earlier this season, Gozo was still “burning down the sidelines” late in games. His defensive work rate stood out. And the goals continued. He added four goals in four games across the first two weeks of May.
He had six goals and five assists in 1,417 minutes this season.
“When you put all that together, you got a guy that’s just growing technically, tactically, understanding the game, his finishing has improved, but he’s always been a physical monster,” Mastroeni said. “That’s why his ceiling is so high. And I think that translates to any league in the world. … It’s almost a cheat code. He has a real talent, plus his physical capacity.”
Through it all, Mastroeni said he was also impressed by how Gozo was handling the increased attention.
RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni has supported Zavier Gozo’s rise to prominence. (Simon Fearn / Imagn Images)
“He’s one of the brightest spirits,” Mastroeni said. “He’s always happy, always has a smile on his face. He exemplifies everything, and he’s just a real joy from a coaching perspective because he’s also a learner. He wants to get better, and so there’s he never has a feeling that I know everything. … He brings all the stuff that you see in the game, but he’s also just a world-class human being as well.”
Gozo’s family knew a move to Europe was inevitable. And what comes next with the senior national team will be yet another opportunity for Gozo to level his game up. It will be a lot for a kid who has lived at home in the Salt Lake area his entire career as a professional.
During the recent visit to his house, Gozo was mingling with a childhood best friend just after training and before an interview. Those layers of comfort will be stripped away for the first time. The family planned to build support around him, with maybe his brother or mom coming out to help the transition.
“We know it’ll be a hard transition for him from going from a family home to your own place,” Esther said. “We just want to see him succeed. And however we can help him do that, I think is what we’ll want to do.”
Ahead of the World Cup, Gozo had once again found that level of confidence he is always seeking. He was playing his best soccer and was now the best player — or one of the best —at Real Salt Lake. He could “step on the field and just be me and do what I want to do with confidence.”
He knows what will come next at Palace: The same thing he experienced moving from academy to Monarchs and then from Monarchs to Real Salt Lake. A new challenge. A humbling introduction to a higher level. More motivation to push himself and find that comfort and confidence again.
For Gozo, it will be about how quickly he can fall back into the process that got him here, and on his ability to lean on the creativity and attacking mindset that pushed him to new levels this year.
“Being me is what’s going to get me farther,” he said. “I don’t know why I would shy away from doing the things that are making me succeed.”
