Shkëlzen Gashi strode into Casa Grande, Ariz., last month like the sheriff in an old Western movie, ready for heads to turn. The Rapids’ once and, he hopes, future scoring star wanted to make his presence felt.
“They said, ‘You look so good,'” Gashi recalled his teammates saying. He shot back: “‘There was a lot of work behind this amazing body.’ It was a joke. But it was nice to hear because I put so much work into it.”
After a lost 2017 season strung together with a consistent thread of injuries, Gashi suddenly found himself on the hotseat.