Real Salt Lake sign defender Aaron Herrera to contract extension

TRANSFER TRACKER STATUS: Extension

Real Salt Lake have signed homegrown defender Aaron Herrera to a contract extension through the 2024 MLS season with options for the 2025 and 2026 campaigns, the club announced Thursday.

Herrera, 25, first debuted for RSL in 2018. Mainly playing at right back or as the right-sided center back in a back three, Herrera has accumulated one goal and 16 assists across 107 matches (102 starts).

“Aaron epitomizes what Real Salt Lake’s development paradigm represents,” RSL general manager Elliot Fall said in a release. “Aaron has been a standout MLS defender throughout his professional career, college, his youth international career as well. We are exceptionally proud of how he represents this club, and we are elated that his presence here is secured for the foreseeable future.”

Herrera has played once for the US men’s national team, appearing in a friendly vs. Trinidad & Tobago in January 2021. Previously, he was a mainstay at various US youth international sides.

“I was just a 15-year-old from Las Cruces with a dream when I joined the RSL Academy in Casa Grande, Arizona back in 2012,” said Herrera. “The last five seasons here in Salt Lake have brought me so much, have helped me grow on and off the field, so I simply couldn’t be more excited to extend my career at Real Salt Lake.”