SANDY, Utah (ABC4 Sports) - Jason Kreis, the man who scored the first goal in Real Salt Lake history back in 2005, and the man who led the team to its only MLS Cup title in 2009, is thrilled to be back with the club.
"Obviously extremely happy about the prospect to coming back to the place that I call home," said Kreis, who was hired as the team's Director of Operations and Special Projects. "I'm extremely excited to be coming back to the soccer club that I feel like is in my heart."
So what exactly will Kreis' role be? He will work on both the soccer side and business side of the team. On the soccer side, Kreis will be a consultant to head coach Pablo Mastroeni and be involved in personnel decisions with technical director Kurt Schmid and assistant general manager Tony Beltran.
"I hope to be more of just a sounding board for Pablo," Kreis said. "To help him to sort of disseminate how he sees the game. From a team building perspective as far as working with Kurt and Tony, I'm going to be another voice in the room to help collaborate on all of those decisions."
Kreis will also help Schmid and Beltran look for a new general manager to replace Elliot Fall, who was let go two weeks ago.
But Kreis, who is one of just two players to have their numbers retired by RSL along with Javier Morales, wanted Mastroeni to understand, he is not out for his job. Kreis' coaching career is over, and Mastroeni was very receptive to bringing him back to Real Salt Lake.
"Pablo was like, 'I love the idea. I think it will be really great for me, and I think it will be really great for the club.' Once I got here, I made sure to sit with Pablo and say very clearly, let's just lay our cards on the table. I have no interest in your job, absolutely none."
While Kreis admits he needs to learn about the business side of the team, he really wants to get the rabid and devoted RSL fans more involved.
"We believe truly in our hearts that we need to be a club that really relies on our fans," Kreis said. "We believe that our fans can provide us something that other places can't. We believe that our fans can help us win games at home."