To say it has been a hectic five days in Columbus, Ohio would be an understatement. After a very public argument between Kei Kamara and Federico Higuain resulting in Kamara to go public with his frustration, Kamara has been traded to the New England Revolution very late in the MLS trade deadline.
For Kamara, according to Shawn Mitchell of the Columbus Dispatch, New England will give Columbus Targeted Allocation Money, General Allocation Money that comes up to an MLS record $500k, a 2017 first round and 2018 second round SuperDraft pick, international roster spot and a percentage of what New England gets if they transfer Kamara somewhere else.
In return, #CrewSC gets TAM, GAM, first-rounder in 2017, second-rounder in 2018, international roster spot and cut of future transfer money.
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) May 12, 2016
This started last Saturday when Columbus won a penalty kick and Kamara wanted to take the penalty to get his first career hat trick. Higuain was asked by Kamara to take the penalty but he instead offered the penalty to Justin Meram. When Meram turned it down, Higuain took it himself after the two got into a very public verbal confrontation.
After the game, Kamara then went public with his criticism of Higuain and whether he wanted or not, caused Columbus to seek out potential teams to sen Kamara. After an initial trade that would’ve sent Kamara to the Vancouver Whitecaps for Octavio Rivero and some sort of allocation money, the deal was pulled off the table in favor of New England’s deal.
So what does this mean for the Revs? Well, they just got the runner-up in MLS MVP voting last season as well as someone who scored 22 goals last season and didn’t have to give up any current players. Yes, New England hasn’t been playing well and currently sit 8th out of 10 teams in the Eastern Conference but they looked impressive in the preseason and are capable of winning the Supporters Shield. They may be 8th but are only five points out of the Eastern Conference lead.
Kamara also teams up with someone familiar as he will likely partner with former Sporting KC teammate Teal Bunbury. While New England seems to be giving up a lot, Kamara could be remaining piece of the puzzle to get the Revs back into the title race.
For the Columbus Crew, some may say losing Kamara will be a major downgrade but it will create a better atmosphere in the locker room. And if that means giving up arguably your best player, you have to do it. Every team has disagreements among themselves, Kamara broke the rule by not keeping it in the locker room and making it public, leaving Columbus to feel like they had no choice according to manager Gregg Berhalter and owner Anthony Precourt.
Team first in Columbus. Always. #CrewSC
— Anthony Precourt (@APrecourt) May 12, 2016
#CrewSC Gregg Berhalter: “Most important is the culture we have here in this soccer club. Players come and go."
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) May 12, 2016
#CrewSC Berhalter on trade return: "This gives us flexibility to add in any position now."
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) May 12, 2016
More Berhalter: "Now we have the means to address any position we feel is lacking and needs to be strengthened." #CrewSC
— Shawn Mitchell (@shecky218) May 12, 2016
Need this to be crystal clear, not about the PK or Pipa drama this week. One chapter in the book. #CrewSC
— Anthony Precourt (@APrecourt) May 12, 2016
Precourt and Berhalter are right. This move will hopefully cement Columbus for the foreseeable future but I don’t think I necessarily buy the timeline. I’m sure there have been issues before this past weekend but I can’t possibly believe Columbus actively sought out trading Kamara before this past weekend. Why would they? It doesn’t make sense. Kamara was Columbus’ leading goalscorer with five goals this season and this is the team who lost in the MLS Cup Final. After only nine games, it’s very drastic to push the reset button now when Columbus was that close to winning the title if the PK incident didn’t happen.
Columbus still has a solid team and with all that money and draft picks, they will eventually be a better team but they kind of mortgaged the present for the future. At the same time, if the intent was to get rid of someone who was going to result in internal problems as well as risk those problems going public, any deal was a good deal in Columbus’ eyes. Considering it’s only been five days and Columbus got that, it was probably the best deal they could get, assuming they seriously started seeking trade partners this past weekend. And Columbus does have 26-year-old Ola Kamara who will likely take over for the 31-year-old Kei for the time being. It’s a risk but maybe Ola can enter the spotlight right as he’s entering the prime of his career and make fans forget about the other Kamara they used to have.
