Real Salt Lake acquires striker Campos

Wednesday began just like any other day for Pablo Campos. He woke up, took care of his morning rituals and headed out to San Jose Earthquakes soccer practice. He had no idea the stunning news that awaited him.

Upon his arrival the 25-year-old striker was informed by San Jose coach Frank Yallop that he'd been traded to Real Salt Lake. Roughly three hours later Campos' belongings were packed up and he was heading to the airport.

Thursday morning he woke up in a hotel in Salt Lake City set to begin the next stage in his soccer career that's spanned three continents.

"Very, very surprised. I wasn't expecting it," Campos said. "Obviously after I sat and thought about it, it was great since I knew Jason (Kreis) since 2007, when he came to see one of my games when I was in college."

Real Salt Lake coach Jason Kreis has been trying to retain Campos' services ever since. Even when Campos finished his college career at Fresno Pacific University and signed in Sweden, Kreis still kept tabs on the 6-foot-3 Brazilian.

Upon learning that Campos had become quite depressed in Sweden, it was Kreis and RSL general manager Garth Lagerwey who really pushed MLS to sign him. It was San Jose, however, that won the lottery for Campos' services after he joined the league.

Kreis finally got his man on Wednesday in exchange for a 2010 second round SuperDraft pick, and Campos will be available to play this Saturday at Columbus.

"We've been pretty clear with him already that he's not going to come right into the starting lineup, but he is here to compete for minutes," Kreis said. "And we think he's going to be a bright, bright star in the future of this club for a long time."

Even though he was surprised by the trade, Campos admits things weren't working out in San Jose, and he thinks it was largely due to the system.

"I need a playmaker, a guy to play underneath me. Here we play the 4-3-3, we have the triangle in the middle, so a guy's going to be playing underneath me so he can serve the ball. That's how I know how to play," said Campos, who boldly predicted that RSL would still make the playoffs this year.

Campos' towering presence is a bit deceiving. Kreis said it's easy to assume that because he's so tall he's clumsy, but that just isn't the case. RSL has long sought Campos because of his complementary ability with his feet.

Perhaps no one knows that better than Ned Grabavoy, who was Campos teammate in the preseason with San Jose before being released.

"I think he's going to be a good asset for our team. He's a big target forward but he's a player who's really good with this feet, and for our team we have a lot of guys who like to play with their feet, we play good soccer," Grabavoy said.

Time will tell if Campos is better with his feet and a better overall target player than Kenny Deuchar was last season. If he is, RSL might have finally found that double-digit goal scorer.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com