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Cucho Hernandez, Aidan Morris: How former Crew players are performing with new teams
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- Cucho Hernandez, Aidan Morris: How former Crew players are performing with new teams
The Crew brought championships to Columbus each of the last two years, capturing the 2023 MLS Cup and 2024 Leagues Cup. Since winning those titles, top-performing players from those rosters have moved on to different leagues and teams.
One of the biggest departures was striker and team-leading scorer Cucho Hernandez , who made the jump from MLS to La Liga's Real Betis this offseason.
Crew midfielder Aidan Morris gvies teammate Cucho Hernandez a five after a corner kick against Sporting KC in 2024. Morris later left to play in England and Hernandez in Spain.
Before Hernandez's departure, two-time MLS Cup champion and homegrown midfielder Aidan Morris was signed by the English Football League Championship's Middlesbrough FC in June of 2024.
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Here is how the players who have left Columbus recently, including Hernandez and Morris, have performed with their new teams.
Cucho Hernandez
Hernandez made his debut for Real Betis on Feb. 8, coming off the bench in a 3-2 loss against Celta Vigo in regular-season play.
Six games later, Hernandez scored his first La Liga goal, a game-winner against Leganes, which he followed up with another goal the following game. Hernandez finished the season with five goals in 16 appearances.
Cucho Hernandez finished his first season with Real Betis with five goals in 16 appearances.
Real Betis began its 2025-26 season on Aug. 18, with Hernandez starting at striker for the opening four games of the season.
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In June, the 26-year-old was called up to the Colombia n national team for the first time since his transfer. He started in a scoreless draw against Peru.
Aidan Morris
Since Morris joined Middlesbrough ahead of the 2024-25 season, the 23-year-old has solidified his role for the English team, starting 33 games last season and the opening three of this season.
Aidan Morris has consistenly started for Middelsbrough since transfering from the Crew.
In November, Morris suffered a knee injury that sidelined him for over a month, rendering him unavailable for multiple United States men's national team camps.
Morris has yet to receive another call-up since the injury. His last appearance for the national team was last October, early in first-year coach Mauricio Pochettino's tenure with the team.
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Lucas Zelarayan
Forward Lucas Zelarayan, the MVP of Columbus' 2020 MLS Cup title victory, made the move to a new league four months before the 2023 MLS Cup playoffs.
Zelarayan was transferred from Columbus to Saudi Pro League's Al Fateh SC, where he spent two seasons before heading to Argentina 's Belgrano, where the 33-year-old first played professionally from 2012 to 2015.
Christan Ramirez
The Crew lost two of their three top-goal producers last offseason when Hernandez was transferred to Real Betis and forward Christian Ramirez was traded to the Los Angeles Galaxy just two days later.
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Hernandez, Ramirez and current Crew forward Diego Rossi combined for 39 of Columbus' 72 regular-season goals last season.
Since joining the Galaxy, Ramirez has recorded four goals and one assist in 24 regular-season appearances. However, Ramirez has only seen four minutes of playing time in the Galaxy's five-game run to the Leagues Cup semifinals.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Columbus Crew: Where Cucho Hernandez, Aidan Morris are now
