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An era of Columbus Crew history slams shut with the sale of Cucho Hernandez | Arace
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- An era of Columbus Crew history slams shut with the sale of Cucho Hernandez | Arace
The Crew got worse Monday. Oh, they're still formidable, with the best coach in the league in Wilfried Nancy and a tightly knit group of players who push the physical and tactical boundaries of attacking soccer. But they've lost their best player, and replacing him like-for-like is nigh impossible.
Forward Cucho Hernandez, the on-field engine who drove the Crew's success over the past two seasons, has been sold to Real Betis of Spain 's La Liga. The transfer fee coming back to the Crew is around $16 million , a club record, plus "add-ons" including a sell-on clause. The transfer price represents a tidy profit on the $10 million the Crew paid to buy Hernandez from the English Championship side Watford in the summer of 2022.
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Hernandez finished a close second to Inter Miami 's Lionel Messi in MVP voting last season. He was the MVP of the 2023 MLS Cup and the 2024 Leagues Cup. He was considered the best all-around player in the league and a killer in high-stakes games. He will celebrate his 26thbirthday on April 22, which is to say he is firmly in his prime.
There is no way to spin this story and make it come out all right for Crew fans.
Crew general manager Issa Tall will tell you he has a budget to maintain. He will tell you that the team's "one club" philosophy – which says the organization, from the academy through Crew 2 to the senior team, is predicated on a dedicated front office providing a continual stream of incoming talent to develop. He will tell you that no player is bigger than the club and cite the 2023 sale of attacking midfielder Lucas Zelarayan as an example. Zelarayan went to Saudi Arabia , forward Diego Rossi was brought in from Turkey and the Crew went on to win their third MLS Cup.
One might presume, or even expect, that Tall has another player to pull out of his back pocket before the MLS transfer window closes April 23. He'd better.
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In the meantime, consider: Hernandez, with an annual base salary of $2.6 million and a guaranteed compensation of $2.65 million according to the MLS Players Association , wasn't even the highest-paid player on the Crew (Rossi has a $2.88 million base and a $3.377 million guarantee). By all accounts, Hernandez was happy in Columbus. He reportedly sought a long-term extension, and he wasn't asking for the moon.
If there was any possibility to keep Hernandez, it should've been worked out. Period. He had 44 goals and 19 assists for 63 goal contributions in 70 league games during his Crew career. A case can be made that he is the most dominant club player in North America: Over his 2 ½ seasons in Columbus, he added more goals above expectation than any other MLS player, Messi included.
We don't know the details involved in Tall's frantic last-minute negotiations. We don't know why Hernandez ultimately agreed to jump across the pond to the 10th-place team in the top Spanish league. By all appearances, Real Betis – a club that has money, albeit not Real Madrid money – needed a forward before the European transfer window closed Monday. Tall's price was met. And Hernandez, a Colombian international, decided that Seville, Andalucia, was a good place for him to burnish his resume ahead of the 2025 World Cup.
It took three to tango.
Crew forward Cucho Hernandez attempts a bicycle kick against Atlanta on Nov. 1, 2023.
The loss of Hernandez is a massive blow to Columbus fans, and we don't use "massive" lightly around here. Whatever Tall does next to soften the impact, he will not soon be able to quash the feeling that something could've been done to keep the greatest player in Crew history. He will not easily dissuade fans from the notion that the ultimate call came from Haslam Sports Group, the majority owners, in Cleveland. He will not be able to alter the thinking that the billionaires who control the club had the wherewithal to make an extension a reality and ultimately failed to.
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Rightly or wrongly, so it goes.
It may turn out that, in the final accounting, the Crew lose money on the deal. It's possible. The transfer price on Hernandez would likely have been higher if the Crew had waited to move him during the summer transfer window ( Transfermarkt lists his value at $17.5 million). Losing Hernandez now means the Crew's chances of winning CONCACAF Champions Cup are reduced. Bonuses could be lost. And so on. At some point, another designated player will be signed, and his contract might be more lucrative than Cucho's, but he will not be Cucho.
It was inevitable that Hernandez would leave at some point; the summer window seemed like a distinct possibility. It happened sooner, and it happened quickly. The Crew are not as good today as they were yesterday and, more likely than not, they won't be as good tomorrow as they were last year.
On the bright side, the Messi game is in Cleveland this year.
Get more on the Crew at the Soccer Speakeasy
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: A Columbus GOAT and an all-time MLS great is sold to LaLiga team
