Transfer Tracker

Real Salt Lake re-sign veteran defender Donny Toia

Donny Toia - Real Salt Lake

TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS:Re-signing


Real Salt Lake announced on Monday they have re-signed their original Homegrown signing, defender Donny Toia.


Toia, 27, returned to RSL in 2019, making 24 league appearances, all starts, scoring a goal and an assist.


“Donny is a player who has been a part of the RSL family since he was a standout youth player in Arizona. He’s proven himself a steady, reliable performer and someone who we can count on to bring professionalism and hard work, day in and day out,” RSL general manager Elliot Fall said in a team statement. “We are very happy to know that we can extend his time with the club for several more years to come.”


Toia turned pro with RSL in 2011, originally entering MLS as an attacker. But he did not make a regular-season appearance for RSL in his first stint at the club, moving to lower-league FC Tucson and then Phoenix FC for a year each and then signing with Chivas USA in 2014. Converting to fullback there, Toia has since been a regular at MLS level, also playing at Montreal Impact and Orlando City before his RSL return this year. All told, in his MLS career he has 133 MLS regular-season appearances, scoring two goals and seven assists.


“Donny was very consistent for us and helped solidify the back line to help make us one of the best defenses in the league,” RSL head coach Freddy Juarez said. “He earned his spot by putting his head down and working and every day he was consistent.”