We are pleased to announce that the club has agreed a deal for the loan signing of Real Salt Lake forward Ilijah Paul, subject to relevant clearances.
The 21-year-old will arrive at Inver Park having made nine senior appearances for the MLS side this season and will bolster Tiernan Lynch’s striking options until January 2024.
Born in Arizona, the American forward joined Real Salt Lake in December 2022 after being selected as the 7th overall pick during the 2023 MLS SuperDraft. Since joining the Claret and Cobalt, Paul has regularly been part of the first team squad and made a competitive MLS debut against St. Louis City in March.
Following his competitive debut, the player was selected to start against Columbus Crew in RSL’s next league game and has since gone on to play five more MLS games and two US Open Cup games. Alongside breaking into the first team, Paul has been a regular for RSL’s development side, the Real Monarchs, scoring 5 times in 13 appearances in the MLS Next Pro division.
Discussing the signing, first team manager Tiernan Lynch said:
“We are delighted to have the opportunity to bring Ilijah to Inver Park. From the players point of view, Ilijah is riding the crest of a wave having been signed by Real Salt Lake in December and having since broken into their first team squad.
“The plan is that Ilijah will come to Larne, allow us to build on the attacking talent already at our disposal while also developing himself and getting more experience as a senior player in a similar fashion to Jaziel Orozco who is already at the club.”
The deal will be confirmed following the player being granted the relevant clearance and the player registration process has been completed. A full announcement will be made in due course.
