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Admittedly, it looked a bit strange. Garth Lagerwey chatting up Jeff Cassar and Bill Manning and Craig Waibel wanting to make a deal. It necessitated a double take. Real Salt Lake's former general manager struck a deal with his former boss and close friends moments before RSL was set to make the 16th pick in Thursday's MLS SuperDraft in Philadelphia.

The RSL fan base clamored for Cristian Roldan, the talented midfielder out of the University of Washington — a projected Top-3 pick — who slid to them at 16. But Lagerwey and the Seattle Sounders wanted him more. The deal was Seattle's 27th pick and other considerations, which turned out to be allocation money. (It was later reported by Jeremiah Oshan of SB Nation that the Sounders gave up "just under $100,000" in allocation money in the deal).

Waibel, RSL's technical director, said the deal presented made sense for RSL.

"We still felt we could get our guy and we got some extras along the way," Waibel told the Tribune by phone Thursday. "In the end, the deal was pretty easy … it was a bit of a last-second thing. We were really comfortable making our selection, but the deal just kind of made sense. It was a very minimal back-and-forth."

RSL ended up taking North Carolina defender Boyd Okwuonu with the 27th pick. The four-year starter with the Tar Heels rated quite highly with RSL and was one of their top-rated players in this year's draft. In essence, RSL got its guy and reportedly added a decent amount of cash to its bank account.

I asked Waibel if RSL was ever tempted to take Roldan, whom he coached at the University of Washington, when the crafty midfielder slid to 16th.

"We had our priority list," Waibel said. "We had five-to-six guys that were still on the board at the time. We looked at it and felt really comfortable with the five-to-six guys we still had a shot at and knew we could get one of them at the pick we traded down to. We gave it a shot and it worked out for us. You have to be happy with the outcome."

Okwuonu has ties to Utah. His brother Willie lives in Salt Lake City and played football at Weber State. He became close friends with RSL midfielder Luis Gil during their time at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. He's even played some reserve-team games here and said he loved RSL's facilities. Where does he project long-term? Likely as an outside back. But Waibel was adamant that he didn't want to "handcuff a young player" by dubbing him as this or that.

"He's a very good player — his passing percentages are quality, playing percentages are quality," Waibel said. "He's a great athlete, connects the game, plays the game we like to play, ball's on the deck. He's a defensive player, but he connects very, very well. His percentages in college were outstanding. Everything he does we think he can do well with us."

Regarding his spot with the club, Waibel said there will be games to be played at the USL Pro level with the Monarchs should Okwuonu need them — or minutes to challenge for with the first team should he earn them.

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Manning — once again — named Executive of the Year • For the second time in three seasons, RSL club president Bill Manning was named MLS Executive of the Year. The award, called the Doug Hamilton Award, signifies recognition of competitive excellence and outstanding metrics in key business areas. RSL has increased its season-ticket sales 27 percent and could hit 16,000 season-ticket holders by the start of the 2015 campaign. The club has a 90-percent renewal rate of season tickets and has added close to 3,500 new season-ticket holders.

"First and foremost, I want to pay tribute to Doug Hamilton, for whom this honor is named; Doug's actions still inspire the soccer industry every day," said Manning in a release. "This award — as it was after the 2012 season — really is a reflection of the great staff, management, locker room and ownership we have here at Real Salt Lake — we allow each other to succeed every day. None of this would be possible without the incredible passion, commitment, support and fervor of our extraordinarily dedicated fan base."

RSL's Director of Group Ticketing, Scott Reynolds, was also recognized as MLS' 2014 Salesperson of the Year. Along with Jen Petrosky and Matt Rader, the group are among 10 honorees at the "Gold" level of sales, signifying 20,000-plus tickets sold by each representative in 2014.

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Another defender on his way? • After re-signing Aaron Maund and Abdoulie Mansally, penning Phanuel Kavita to a Homegrown deal and drafting Boyd Okwuonu Thursday, could RSL be adding another defender? According to Washington Post scribe Steven Goff, RSL is close to it. Goff tweeted Thursday morning that RSL is close to signing Guatemalan center back Elias Vasquez, a 22-year-old defender with 25 international caps.

According to a Guatemalan outlet, Vasquez confirmed that he is expected to receive an official offer from RSL soon and sign it. In 2014, Vasquez played for Dorados de Sinaloa of the Mexican second division. He saw significant time at the international level with the Guatemalan U-20s where served as captain.

When asked about the various reports, Waibel said he had no comment Thursday.

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-Chris Kamrani

Twitter: @chriskamrani