Imagine this. During this summer transfer window, the Columbus Crew adds former LAFC forward Diego Rossi to an attack that has already scored the most goals in Major League Soccer without losing any other key pieces.
While that didn’t happen, it was once thought to be a possibility, although one that was quickly deemed not viable. Sources with knowledge of the Crew’s moves this summer told Massive Report that the front office explored options of buying down a Designated Player with Targeted Allocation Money in order to add Rossi.
If you aren’t familiar with MLS’s roster moves, basically the Black & Gold hoped to use the league’s mechanisms to have the equivalent of four maximum-paid players on the roster. Unfortunately for Columbus, it is hard to get a DP below the threshold and the means to do so were not there.
As fans of the Crew now know, the team did acquire Rossi but it came at a cost. Just two days before announcing the Uruguayan international’s signing from Fenerbahçe S.K., the Black & Gold transferred playmaker Lucas Zelarayan to Al Fateh SC of the Saudi Pro League.
“The funds from Lucas we used for buying Diego,” Columbus president and general manager Tim Bezbatchenko told Massive Report. “And I think that’s important for our fans and everyone to understand how this works. It’s important to know it’s a global marketplace and we have to be ready to act and we have to do it responsibly.”
As previously reported by Massive Report, the deal to move on from Zelarayan, arguably the team’s best-ever player who helped the club win an MLS Cup in 2020, was not done without a plan. Bezbatchenko and his staff had multiple options and were hopeful to get one done before the close of MLS’s summer window. Rossi was described to Massive Report as clearly at the top of the list “by a wide margin.”
Had things worked out slightly differently, there wouldn’t have been a day between the announcement that Zelarayan was departing and Rossi was set to join the Crew. One major factor that went into announcing the Zelarayan transfer on Monday was to provide the team’s No. 10 the chance to say goodbye to the fans, something he got to do prior to the Black & Gold’s 4-1 Leagues Cup win against Club América.
“The idea was all the time to be coherent about our decision,” head coach Wilfried Nancy said on Thursday. “So as soon as we knew this opportunity, so for us to ask everyone to do it. So the way we work, we try to be patient with our decision and the fact that we put the structure and we are patient, we are able to jump on all kinds of opportunity if this is good for the club. So this is what happened. This is what happened and we are pleased and we are happy for that.”
However it worked out, Rossi is now a Columbus player. After scoring 48 goals and registering 21 assists in 104 MLS games for LAFC and helping the club win the 2019 Supporters’ Shield, among other trophies, Rossi now comes to a Crew team with similar ambitions.
The fact that Rossi knows this league and its challenges was something the Black & Gold considered a major positive.
“A player who has left his country and either had success or has faced obstacles and challenges and overcome them is a formula for success in MLS,” Bezbatchenko explained. “And Diego’s not only left his country but he’s dominated in MLS before. He’s gone to Europe. He’s played in European competition, both in the domestic and international. He’s a regular now for the Uruguayan national team to a degree. So he’s coming back and he could light this league on fire again.”
Before he steps on the pitch at Lower.com Field, it should be noted that Rossi isn’t a direct replacement for Zelarayan. While the Argentine wasn’t a classic No. 10, often playing more like a second forward who could create and score, Rossi is further from that mold. He began his career as a winger and returned to playing largely out wide with Fenerbahçe. But during his time in MLS, he proved to be a high-pressing, energetic, lethal forward.
“How we play and how we’re evolving,” Bezbatchenko explained. “Diego, he’s just a different player than Lucas. He runs. His physical capacity, his numbers are just through the roof. His ability to not just defend but then turn a defensive action into a goal scoring opportunity is incredible. And he also can play a number of different positions. Out on the wing, he can play as a No. 10 or as a No. 9, a second forward. His versatility is also something we really liked. He not only scores goals but creates them. So we looked at it as a whole and we felt like it was a piece that worked with the rest of the pieces that we were getting.”
His versatility was also something Nancy was fully behind. While Rossi may not pull the strings like Zelarayan did during his time in Columbus, he can fit into the fluid front three that has led to the Crew scoring a league-best 45 goals, a re-emergence of Christian Ramirez and Alexandru Matan and a rethinking of the role Cucho Hernandez plays for the team.
Rossi gives Nancy a different option as an offensive weapon.
“He can play different positions,” the head coach said. “He can play up front, he can play on the wing also, he can play also in the middle. So what I like about him is his ability to make also the run in behind. And this is something that we need because we’re able to do good things but I would like to put more doubt on the opposition and the profile of Diego is perfect for that. He can play different positions. So again, you know that I like to change a bit the animation. I like also to depending on the opposition. So I’m pleased because he’s versatile. So this is perfect for us depending on the game.”
One major difference between Rossi and Zelarayan, one that makes it easier to do the thing described by Bezbatchenko and Nancy, is their age. Rossi turned 25 in March while Zelarayan is recently 31. The Crew front office spent much of last offseason building a younger roster and allowing the youth on the team to get opportunities. While recent moves for Julian Gressel and Rudy Camacho may have bucked that trend, they were the exception to the team’s rule to have a younger team.
Rossi fits that mold. As a player who could be with the club through the 2027 season, Rossi is in the prime of his career and is only going to continue to improve. Zelarayan, while the club’s top scorer this season, is one season away from likely departing anyway. By making these moves, Bezbatchenko was able to get a return for an older player in order to get younger.
“It’s a big part of it. It has to be,” he said of Rossi’s age. “Diego’s literally in his prime… And so age absolutely played a factor into it. Lucas had a little over a year left. So we have to factor that in in terms of, if we waited longer and at the end of this year or the beginning of next year or throughout the year then it would be hard to get something that we could have afforded getting a player like Diego.”
As for when fans may see Rossi for the first time, there might be a waiting period. The hope is the Uruguayan will be in Columbus by the end of the week. He has been in preseason with Fenerbahçe so Nancy will evaluate where Rossi is physically but will be careful integrating him into a side that is 23 games into the MLS season.
The decision to move on from Zelarayan was not an easy one. But the chance to bring in Rossi, a younger player with experience in the league who actually may make the Crew’s attack more dynamic, at a price that surprised the Black & Gold was too good for Columbus to pass up.
MASSIVE REPORT 
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