The Columbus Crew knew the team got a talented player and a good deal when trading for Gyasi Zardes in January of 2018. The Black & Gold sent forward Ola Kamara, coming off an 18-goal season, to the LA Galaxy for Zardes and $400,000 in Targeted Allocation Money.
What Columbus got in return was a player who had scored 10-plus goals just once in his first five seasons in Major League Soccer, while playing multiple positions for the Galaxy. But the Crew looked beyond Zardes’ 14 total goals from 2015-17 and saw a striker that then-head coach Gregg Berhalter and his staff believed fit the profile the team required.