A World Cup athlete to watch from Utah. Photo: courtesy of Real Salt Lake

HERRIMAN, Utah — First-year Real Salt Lake Juan Manuel Sanabria (nicknamed “JuanMa”) has been named to represent his home nation of Uruguay in this summer’s 2026 FIFA World Cup, as La Celeste manager Marco Bielsa named the 26-year-old, left-sided playmaker to the squad. Sanabria continues RSL’s quadrennial World Cup participation tradition, following in the footsteps of Bryan Oviedo (Costa Rica, 2022), Carlos Salcedo (Mexico, 2018), Kyle Beckerman & Nick Rimando (USA, 2014), Robbie Findley (USA, 2010), Eddie Pope (USA, 2006) and Douglas Sequeira (Costa Rica, 2006).

Sanabria – who leads RSL with six assists in 11 games played so far in RSL’s 2026 MLS campaign – departed from Minnesota to Uruguay’s training camp in its Montevideo home. Based this summer in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the 17^th-ranked FIFA nation – which won the World Cup in 1930 as host nation and the 1950 tournament in Brazil – is placed in Group H for the 2026 FIFA World Cup North America, competing with Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde and Spain for advancement in the 48-team tournament.

No other players from RSL will be in the World Cup; however, Utah is hosting a European nation during the World Cup as a Training Site.

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Uruguay will play each of its first two matches in Miami, kicking off against Saudi Arabia on Monday and then against Cape Verde on Sunday. Sanabria and his side will then complete group play in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday, June 26 against former World Cup champions Spain.

Arriving at RSL in late January, Sanabria joined the Claret-and-Cobalt via permanent transfer for the 2026 and 2027-28 Major League Soccer seasons from Liga MX upstart Atlético San Luis, with a Club option for the 2028-29 campaign. Sanabria – a dual-national Uruguayan/Spanish citizen – also started and played the full 90 minutes against RSL in last year’s Leagues Cup group stage match at America First Field, won by San Luis via shootout tiebreaker.

Born in 2000, Sanabria had appeared in 170 games across all competitions for Liga MX side Atlético San Luis since the summer of 2021, scoring eight goals while playing multiple positions front-to-back on the left side.

The Uruguayan international made his professional move to Mexico in mid-2021, arriving from Spain, where he appeared in 46 games across two years.

In June, 2025, Sanabria received his first call-up to Uruguay’s senior national team, making his debut last October in a 1-0 friendly win against the Dominican Republic. Sanabria then scored his first goal three days later, on October 13, 2025, in a 2–1 win over Uzbekistan. This March, Sanabria was on the field as a substitute for Uruguay’s late equalizer in a 1-1 draw at historic Wembley Stadium in London against host England, also coming off the bench late a few days later in Naples, Italy, in a 0-0 draw with Algeria.