Young Goalkeeper Gavin Beavers Making Strides with Real Salt Lake
As the European schedule is still in the initial stages of play, the Major League Soccer regular season is drawing to a close, with several young talents having taken significant strides forward. With a few matches remaining, there is the opportunity to gain more experience before perhaps making the true breakthrough in 2025.
After several professional campaigns, Gavin Beavers is receiving a chance to stake his claim in the starting lineup for Real Salt Lake with a string of successful appearances. The 19-year-old goalkeeper is impressing at a position that is typically held by a veteran but rewards those who gain meaningful reps at a young age.
Born in Henderson, Nevada and the son of a former United States youth international, Beavers played basketball and competed in soccer with Heat FC before joining the Real Salt Lake academy (over Sporting Kansas City) following a trial “shortly before COVID hit.”
He began featuring on the bench with the second team in the USL Championship and made his debut the following season (at the time, the youngest goalkeeper in league history), registering a 1-1 draw with San Antonio FC and a 3-2 victory over New Mexico United. The club subsequently signed him to a reserve contract, praising his “approach to the craft with the dedication and focus of a veteran player.”
A few months later, Beavers inked a two-year Homegrown Player deal with the MLS side, having “established himself as an elite goalkeeping prospect.” That season, he remained with the reserves as the first-choice goalkeeper, registering 15 appearances and three shutouts in MLS Next Pro, demonstrating “loads of potential” but needing to improve his distribution according to observers.
After standout performances in the MLS NEXT PRO Invitational against Chelsea and Wolves, his year ended with a trial at Crystal Palace, “competing and showing his value” to the Premier League side. Watch a highlight of Beavers here.
Last season, Beavers picked up an early start with the MLS group, finding himself on the wrong side of a 4-0 result to Columbus Crew SC that demonstrated the intensity of the top division. He then made three appearances with the reserves before returning to the first team as a back-up, collecting 12 total matches across all competitions. His four performances in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup helped Real Salt Lake reach the semifinal round.
Manager Pablo Mastroeni praised his mentality but noted the need to adjust to the speed of the game and improve “decision-making at every level.” Beavers opened this season once again in a secure position as the back-up. However, he began steadily making sporadic appearances before challenging for the number-one role in July and registering seven out of the last nine starts, giving him 14 matches across all competitions thus far.
The goalkeeper even tallied a somewhat fortuitous assist in a recent 3-2 victory over FC Dallas, with his dumped pass leading to a superlative finish from Anderson Julio. His long-held goal is to move to Europe, with rumors emerging that Newcastle United is interested in securing his services.
At the international level, Beavers has been a regular call-up of late with the United States program. He made several appearances with the USMNT U-19 side in 2023 and 2024 in various friendlies, which gave him a sense of confidence to bring back to Real Salt Lake. While eligible for the upcoming 2025 U-20 World Cup in Chile, his success with his club could potentially preclude his inclusion on the roster.
Standing at a rangy six-foot-four, Beavers is a box-controlling goalkeeper who frequently leaves his line both to hail crosses and meet onrushing opponents, with an average distance of 15.6 yards on his defensive actions. Real Salt Lake praises his “shot-stopping ability and top-end athleticism,” while Everybody Soccer ranks him as the fifth-best American at his position under the age of 24.
On his best days, he “aggressively controls his areas, organizes the defense, and [demonstrates] impeccable positioning and clean and sharp distribution.” As is desired for goalkeepers, maintaining composure is a key component to his development. “Short-term memory has been really big,” Beavers shared with KUTV. “Not every game you’re going to have a shutout, not every game you’re going to make every save… Just making sure that whatever happens is in the past and you just [have] to keep working and that next game make sure that whatever mistake you made or whatever goal you’re trying to prevent, [you] learn from [it]… You get experience, and I feel like [that’s] something that I don’t have as much of just being younger.”
Beavers appears to have gained a toehold in the starting lineup for Real Salt Lake and should continue to play for the remainder of the season. As a young player in a position that severely punishes errors, he is delivering results with a calm and composed nature, which could bode well once the calendar turns to next year. In the long term, experience at a young age will pay dividends later in his career, picking up regular matches at a stage when many players are still struggling to break through a crowded depth chart. With a normal or exponential development curve, his name could be called for the 2030 World Cup or perhaps 2026, respectively.
