Real Salt Lake continued its busy offseason of player movements, announcing that the club has waived MF Jamie Watson. The departure of Watson comes just days before Real Salt Lake will report for the beginning of the 2008 preseason, which commences this Saturday, Jan. 26, with entrance physicals and fitness drills in Salt Lake City. RSL will announce the club's full schedule and media availability opportunities during the team's four-day stay on the Wasatch Front from Jan. 26-29 once details are finalized later this week.
"Jamie has been an important contributor to our club since its inception and, although his time with us has run its course, we hope he can catch on with another MLS team," said RSL General Manager Garth Lagerwey. "After making our player selections at the MLS SuperDraft last Friday we felt Jamie would not have a realistic chance to make our 18-man senior roster, so we are doing the right thing by Jamie and releasing him now so that he has every opportunity to join another MLS team at the beginning of the preseason. We thank Jamie for his contributions to Real Salt Lake both on and off the field and wish him well in his future endeavors."
The 21-year-old Watson departs Real Salt Lake after three seasons with the Utah side, which selected the University of North Carolina and U.S. Soccer youth system product in the second round (13th overall selection) of the 2005 MLS SuperDraft. Watson made 38 regular season appearances (six starts) for RSL and scored a pair of goals while and adding one assist in 1,112 minutes of MLS play. Watson was one of six players from RSL's inaugural 2005 season that was on the squad's 2007 opening day roster, three of whom still remain members of the club (DF Nikolas Besagno, MF Kenny Cutler, and MF Andy Williams).
