Craig Waibel knew his suggestion might not be immediately embraced. Then the general manager of Real Salt Lake, Waibel peered over his desk this past summer at Andrew Brody, a discouraged young defender who wasn’t great at hiding his disaffection.



Brody was one of the odd men out of RSL’s youth movement, languishing in the USL while former academy peers shined in Major League Soccer. So while he was hungry for a change of scenery and an increase in playing time, Brody was also skeptical of Waibel’s intentions — especially when he first heard the garbled name of the club who wanted to take him on loan.



FC Pinzgau Saalfelden.



It was a team in the Austrian third division, Waibel explained. One with an interesting backstory. The club was run, in part, by a former RSL public relations officer, as well as a former season-ticket holder at Rio Tinto Stadium. They were in the process of converting Pinzgau into a club wholly owned and operated...