About this time every year, the stories start rolling in. The tweets pile up. The usual hype train builds momentum, its usual passengers all asking one question: Is this the season that Luis Gil becomes the creative, attacking player that doesn’t just put his stamp on a game, but on a whole year?
Never mind where he lines up – usually outside midfield – for Real Salt Lake. Don’t worry about Javier Morales, slotting in just in front of Gil, still one of the best No. 10s in MLS at age 35. Don’t even think about the fact that Gil, entering his sixth season in the league, is just 21, with his next birthday all the way off in November.
Keep dreaming your dreams, just don’t expect Gil to pay any attention to them. Yes, he wants to become the player you hope for. He wants to be an MLS star, wants to play in the Olympics, wants to become the USMNT’s big-time No. 10. But he’s content to plug along at the same, deliberate pace he’s had since turning pro in 2010 at the age of 16, gradually building up, slowly taking on more responsibility.
- ARMCHAIR ANALYST: Adding one final piece to the game of Real Salt Lake's Luis Gil
“Yeah, sometimes,” Gil says when asked if he gets sick of hearing about other people’s goals for him. “People like to hype players up. I don’t let that hype stuff get to me. I’m still young. Yeah, I’ve been in the league for five years now, but it’s kind of growing pains sometimes. I’m still learning, still a young player on a veteran team with a core that’s been together for a while.
“My time will come. It’s just about patience.”
He says he’s in no rush, but Gil knows this might be his year. He’s no longer the pimply teenager that showed up in Salt Lake City five years ago, he’s a man now, bulked up and filled out. He’s matured, no longer the quiet kid, but a vocal leader, helping less experienced players acclimate to life with RSL.
Young, but a veteran. Patient, but ready for his chance. Highly touted, already accomplished, but only 21, still trying to figure out who he is, and who he wants to be.
“Youth is an interesting thing, because sometimes when you’re young you can’t figure out how to continually impact,” said RSL technical director Craig Waibel. “Well, Luis is a veteran now. I know he’s young, but his age lies about his experience at this point. Most Americans his age don’t have the type of playing experience, the big-game experience, the international experience that he does.
“He’s becoming a man, and that’s really what we want. We’re hoping to get a really consistent and potentially game-changing player. That’s what we think we have.”
Gil wasn’t that last year. After a banner 2013 that saw him record career highs in goals and assists, start all five of RSL’s playoff games on their run to an appearance at MLS Cup, play the leading role for the US at the Under-20 World Cup and earn some time with the USMNT, Gil struggled in 2014.
He picked up a hamstring injury at a US camp in early April and didn’t fully return for two months. He wasn’t the same when he came back, splitting time at outside midfield with Luke Mulholland and finishing the year with just two goals and two assists in 26 appearances, only 16 of which were starts.
The down year was unexpected for both Gil and RSL, who were ready for the California native to truly break out. Still, the season wasn’t without its positives, with the injuries and inconsistencies helping Gil shape his approach ahead of this season.
“Last year was a little bit of a down year for him, with injuries and things like that,” said RSL head coach Jeff Cassar. “But that’s also part of the growth for a young player. He doesn’t want a year like that again, where it’s ups and downs. This year I talked to him about being steady, being someone I can count on day-in, day-out with practices and also in games.”
Gil’s aiming for that, too. He’s only been with RSL for a week this preseason after spending most of January and the first half of February with the USMNT, but he’s already impressed, displaying a bigger physique and becoming more of a vocal presence.
“Becoming a leader on the field and being vocal, that was the big thing with me,” he said. “I was always that young kid, just listening, just learning and absorbing.
- LISTEN: Waibel on Extratime Radio
“But it’s about time that I start becoming more vocal and applying myself more. There’s a lot of young guys here who are my age, barely coming into the league and I can provide them with some info and I’ve been trying to do that.”
Gil’s teammates have taken notice of his maturation. His continued growth is an exciting development for some of the more notable players on the team, who need Gil to truly step up this year following the offseason departures of longtime stalwarts like midfielder Ned Grabavoy and defenders Nat Borchers and Chris Wingert.
“I think Luis every year gets a little bit more comfortable, a little bit more confident,” said RSL captain Kyle Beckerman. “We’re going to need that from him. We need a big year from him and I know he wants that as well, so we’re all rooting for him, we’re all helping him and I think he’s definitely taken on more of a role.
“This could be a really big, big year for him.”
With a full club slate, a potential Gold Cup call in the summer and Olympic qualifying on tap in the fall, 2015 could indeed be a huge year for Gil. He knows how much promise he has, knows just how talented he is. But he knows how much he has to learn, too. How he needs to turn his good moments into good games, and his good games into good seasons.
RSL of course, know all that too. They also know that the sky is the limit for Gil, and that the sooner he soars, the better.
“In my mind, there’s very little reason to think he’s not capable of becoming one of the best two-way midfielders that our league’s ever had,” Waibel said.
“The way he’s built, his mentality, his honest work rate and his ability on the ball, I really do think he could become one of the top two or three two-way midfielders we’ve ever seen.”
