Real Salt Lake has no plans to re-sign Joy now

PARK CITY — There was a familiar face kickin' around Real Salt Lake's mini camp on Friday.

Ian Joy, the defender who left for Europe midseason last year to be closer to his daughter, returned to Utah this week to get fit for the upcoming soccer season.

At the moment, neither Joy nor RSL management is reading too much into his training with his former team.

"He's a friend of the franchise. He's working to try to get back in shape, get fit, and he's welcome to do that with us," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey. "As to what happens long term, no predictions from us. We'll see how it goes."

Lagerwey said Joy's participation with the rookies, trialists and some select veterans at Newpark's indoor facility isn't meant as a tryout. Lagerwey isn't ruling out the possibility of re-signing Joy, but at the moment he'd be slotted as the fourth outside back on RSL's depth chart, and Lagerwey said the team did fine with three outside backs last year.

Joy knows where he stands with RSL and is content with his status. He's had discussions with several teams about possibily joining them for the preseason, but at the moment nothing has panned out.

"Because I've been away so long, nobody's going to give you a contract until you can prove your fitness," said Joy. "I'll try to be patient and take my time and make the right decision."

Joy said he never wanted to leave Real Salt Lake in the first place last year, but also knew it was for the best.

"The situation for me, the best thing to do was get back home, do a proper rehabilitation, spend a little time with my family, regenerate and refresh and then find the next move," said Joy.

That next move is getting fit with his old team. Joy says he's taking everything one day at a time, and there are no plans for him to join Real Salt Lake during its preseason stint in Arizona from Feb. 13-27.

If he does end up traveling with the team, it could safely be called a tryout at that point.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com