Real Salt Lake trades for Earthquakes forward

The opening day of the MLS transfer window was a busy one for Real Salt Lake.

In addition to officially receiving the signed contract from Dutch winger Rachid El Khalifi, RSL also pulled the trigger on a trade with San Jose that helped it secure another sought-after striker.

Real Salt Lake acquired 6-foot-4 Brazilian forward Pablo Campos on Wednesday in exchange for its 2010 second-round MLS SuperDraft pick.

"He's 6-foot-4, he gives us an aspect to our team that we didn't have before," said RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey. "It's not to say we're automatically going to use a target guy in every situation, it's just nice to have a different kind of forward."

Campos has played in 14 matches for San Jose this year, registering two goals and two assists. Campos will train with Real Salt Lake for the first time today and will be available to coach Jason Kreis for this weekend's game at Columbus.

Real Salt Lake has been eyeing Campos, a graduate of Fresno Pacific University, for two years. Kreis actually played against Campos back in the 2007 preseason when the tall striker was a member of the Fresno Fuego of the PDL. Kreis was impressed enough that he made a push for the Brazilian — who holds a green card — the next offseason.

"We initially wanted to bring him in the league in 2008 but we couldn't work out a contract with him, and he went to Europe," Lagerwey said.

Campos, 26, spent one season with GAIS G?eborg in Sweden, making eight appearances before joining MLS and San Jose at the start of the 2009 season.

RSL feels fortunate that Campos' stock with San Jose has dropped off.

"Everybody makes they're own evaluation of players every day, and we're just grateful that San Jose made the evaluation they made.

Campos' arrival will give RSL six forwards, a head count that will increase to seven when El Khalifi arrives once his work visa is approved.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com