Diego Rossi: Can the Fenerbahce star replace Lucas Zelarayán in Columbus?

Major League Soccer side Columbus Crew have signed a replacement for Lucas Zelarayán. Just two days after the story broke that Zelarayán has been sold to Saudi Pro League side Al-Fateh SC the Crew have managed to secure former LAFC star Diego Rossi from Fenerbahçe. The Turkish Süper Lig has already confirmed that Rossi's ITC has been moved to MLS. The transfer fee is an initial $5.63 million (€5.15m) plus $1m (€913,000) in add-ons. 

A transfer of that category makes Rossi the third most expensive signing in Crew’s history behind Cucho Hernández and Zelarayan (overview). The fee would also pretty much reflect what Fenerbahçe paid for the Uruguayan national team player when they signed him last summer for €5.5m from LAFC after an initial loan. 

Despite his high-profile move to the Süper Lig, Rossi never quite fulfilled his potential at Fenerbahçe. “The main reason for his struggles was that he was to passive in his game and didn’t score enough goals,” Transfermarkt Data Administrator Turkey Mert Kücükoglu said. “He was always good for an assist but just not consequential enough in front of the goal. As a result, Fenerbahçe signed a more dangerous player in Dusan Tadic and was also interested in Wilfried Zaha.” 

Diego Rossi to Columbus Crew – Good enough to replace Zelarayán? 

With that in mind, is Rossi the right player to replace Zelarayán? This season, Zelarayán led the Crew with 16 scorer points (10 goals and six assists) and has been fifth overall in MLS with 16 scorer points. Furthermore, according to Wyscout, Zelarayán is also third in MLS with 24 key passes, fifth with 35 smart passes, and third in one-v-one dribble attempts with 152 attempts. When comparing Rossi and Zelarayán on Wyscout over the last calendar year, however, there are some encouraging numbers for Crew fans. 

While Zelarayán had more goals per 90 (0.47 vs 0.13) and shots per 90 (2.94 vs 1.53), Rossi had more shots on target (42.55% vs 39.45%) and produced more touches in the box per 90 (3.18 vs 2.4) and had more assists per 90 (0.26 vs 0.24). Those numbers must, of course, put in the context that MLS and the Süper Lig are very different competitions. But even in that context, Rossi is certainly a different type of player who, at the same time, should still be able to fill the void in terms of production left by Zelarayán.