Real Salt Lake GM Garth Lagerwey has confirmed that River Plate did indeed make a bid for Jamison Olave, but the team has rejected the offer.

New reports out of S. America indicate that River Plate is close to finalizing the signings of Jamison Olave AND Juan Pablo Angel.  After the end of the recent MLS season, Angel, a former River Plate star, had been speculated for a return to his old club.  This is the first time I have heard anything definitive about his return.  Stay tuned.

Yesterday, you heard it first on Keepin’ It Real that River Plate was after Real Salt Lake’s massive defender, Jamison Olave.  I only reluctantly and half-heartedly passed along the rumor because it came from a River Plate message forum AND it mentioned that option as plan D in the River Plate master plan.  Well, either plans A-C didn’t work out, or PLAN OLAVE moved to the top of the list.  Today, two new reports – one out of Argentina, and one out of Colombia – have said that River Plate President is after Olave.

This report from La Nacion in Argentina mentions that Passarella has made an offer for Olave.

While this report from Terra in Colombia mentions that Passarella has seen video of Olave and likes what he sees.  He has recommended the “hiring” of Olave, but says that the final word is in the hands of club manager, Leonardo Astrada.

Once again, Jamison Olave has a contract with Real Salt Lake/MLS through 2012, and any movement for the player would have to be agreed upon by RSL management and would likely involve a significant transfer fee.

I have an inquiry in with the team about this.  I will pass along anything that I find.

Well, not exactly.  However, this was an interesting read, from a River Plate online forum.

The post suggests that Daniel Passarella, River Plate’s current president and Leonardo Astrade, the team’s manager are in possession of a DVD of Real Salt Lake’s Jamison Olave and are considering him to bolster the lineup.

River Plate had been trying to work out a deal to get venerable Argentine defender Roberto Ayala to return to the club from Real Zaragoza in Spain.  This post seems to indicate that will not likely happen, and mentions Olave as not Plan A, Plan B or even Plan C, but Plan D.

The 28 year-old Colombian defender was, in my eyes, Real Salt Lake’s most valuable player in 2009.  It’s not surprising that his play has garnered some interest from abroad.  It’s also interesting to note that before arriving here on loan, Olave told the Colombian media that he hopes this (coming to RSL) could be a springboard for a move to Europe.

This is also partially a side-effect of Real Salt Lake winning the MLS Cup.  This has raised the profile of the club (and its players) to those on the outside looking in.

Olave’s rights were purchased by the club following a loan stint and is locked up through the 2012 season.  Any movement would require a transfer fee, and likely a fairly significant one.

So should RSL fans worry?  Olave says “NO”.  The source for this info is hardly reliable, and only mentions this as a remote possibility.  A long shot at best.

At this point consider it flattery that the interest is there.

Most of the draft projections are in now.  There are some out there who spend alot of time analyzing these prospects.  There are 4 sites with mock drafts out there: SBI, WVHooligan, Goal.com, and MLSDraft.net.  I have taken their latest projections and listed them below.  In addition, the website Pro Player Pipeline has ranked all of the draft prospects, and I have included their top 32 players on this list.  As you will see several players received only one nomination in the picks.  Others seem to have some pretty good consensus among the evaluators.

If tradition holds, the actual draft will look nothing like the picks below, but it can give you a good idea of some of the top prospects.  Enjoy!