Real Salt Lake caps busy day by signing Olave to new deal

As expected, Monday was a busy day for Real Salt Lake.

In addition to determining the 11 players it's protecting from Wednesday's expansion draft, the club also announced that it purchased the contract of Jamison Olave from his old Colombian club Deportivo Cali.

Olave had been on loan for $80,000 from his native Colombian club, and even though the terms of his new contract haven't been released, he's receiving a significant pay increase to remain with Real Salt Lake through 2012. Signing the bruising center back is definitely a major boost for RSL heading into the 2009 season.

"We are excited to have re-signed Jamison. He was a key player in turning Real Salt Lake around this season, and we are happy he has decided to make a long-term commitment to us," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey.

The other 10 RSL players who avoided the unprotected list are Javier Morales, Fabian Espindola, Nat Borchers, Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson, Robbie Russell, Chris Wingert, Robbie Findley, Yura Movsisyan and Nick Rimando.

Generation adidas players Tony Beltran, Chris Seitz and Alex Nimo are also automatically protected.

RSL's exposed players are Kenny Deuchar, Clint Mathis, Andy Williams, Nate Sturgis, Dema Kovalenko, Ian Joy, David Horst, Kevin Reiman, Kyle Reynish and Tino Nunez.

"Every decision on every player, there are different circumstances for each one," Lagerwey said. "You try and bring the best players back."

Seattle will be selecting 10 total players from the 14 existing MLS teams in the expansion draft, but no team can lose more than one player.

Lagerwey declined to get into the specifics about the players RSL left unprotected, but did add that, "Wednesday we're going to lose a player we care about."

The expansion draft takes place Wednesday at 11 a.m. Trading amongst teams may resume after the draft, followed at 12:30 by the deadline for teams to submit names for the waiver draft.

The names RSL will be submitting to the waiver draft include former No. 1 draft pick Nik Besagno, along with Kenny Cutler and Dustin Kirby.

"Nik's a good kid and he may potentially have a bright future, but after four years we think it's in everyone's best interest to get a fresh start," Lagerwey said.

ENDLINES: RSL midfielder Russell had surgery on his torn labrum and rotator cuff on Friday, injuries that he suffered in the conference loss to New York.

Protected players

RSL protected 11 players from Wednesday's expansion draft:

Javier Morales

Fabian Espindola

Nat Borchers

Kyle Beckerman

Will Johnson

Robbie Russell

Chris Wingert

Robbie Findley

Yura Movsisyan

Nick Rimando

Jamison Olave

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com