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.


ā€œDonny 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,ā€ RSL general manager Elliot Fall said in a team statement. ā€œWe are very happy to know that we can extend his time with the club for several more years to come.ā€


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.


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