Crystal Palace have completed the signing of Zavier Gozo from Real Salt Lake, with the American winger putting pen to paper on a five-year contract at Selhurst Park. The move, confirmed on 19 August, is reported to be worth around $15m (about €13m), a club-record sale for Real Salt Lake and one of the biggest fees ever paid for an MLS academy product. Gozo, 19, becomes the second American on Palace's books alongside centre-back Chris Richards, and the first Utah native to play in the Premier League.
Palace have been tracking Gozo for some time, and it's easy to see why. Deployed on the right of midfield, he offers pace, directness and end product that few teenagers in MLS can match. This season he has scored six goals and set up four more in 1,417 minutes for Real Salt Lake, numbers that made him the club's leading goal contributor and earned him a first call-up to the MLS All-Star Game. He was ranked inside MLS's top ten young players on last year's '22 Under 22' list, and has represented the United States at every youth level from Under-15 to Under-23, including a run to the quarter-finals of the 2025 Under-20 World Cup.
For Real Salt Lake, it's a significant loss on the pitch but a landmark moment off it. Gozo came through the club's academy and made his first-team debut in 2023, before breaking out in 2025 and 2026 to become the most exciting attacking prospect the club has produced. Sporting director Kurt Schmid said watching him 'grow from our Academy into the player he is today has been a privilege for everyone at Real Salt Lake,' while the club say they have retained a significant sell-on percentage from any future transfer, softening the blow of losing their brightest young talent midway through a promising Western Conference campaign.
Gozo's numbers have improved sharply this year. Last season he managed four goals and three assists in 25 appearances; in less game time in 2026 he has already matched or beaten those totals, including becoming the youngest player in Real Salt Lake's history to score twice in a single match. That upward trajectory, together with his versatility across the front line, is exactly the kind of profile that persuades Premier League clubs to take a chance on a teenager from MLS rather than wait for him to develop further.
Born in West Valley City and raised in Eagle Mountain, Utah, Gozo was named after Chelsea and Ivory Coast great Didier Drogba by his father, reflecting his family's Ivorian roots. He has been a fixture in the US youth pathway since his mid-teens and is seen by many in American soccer as one of the country's clearest prospects for full international recognition in the coming years.
Gozo arrives at a club under new management, with Pierre Sage having replaced Oliver Glasner as head coach in June. Chairman Steve Parish said he was 'looking forward to seeing what Zavier can achieve with us during his time in South London.' He is unlikely to walk straight into Sage's starting eleven, but his energy and directness on the right give Palace a fresh attacking option and represent a long-term bet on a club that has built a reputation for turning promising young players into first-team regulars.