Rapids Acquire Aboubacar Keita From Crew

Today Colorado made their first official new acquisition of the offseason.  They traded 300K of GAM, plus up to 150K more in GAM based on performance metrics, to Columbus for homegrown center back Aboubacar Keita.  He's a 21 year old U.S. youth international, who played every game at the 2019 U-20 World Cup for the U.S.  He's been on the Crew's roster for 3 seasons, getting 28 starts and 10 sub appearances in that time, but his lack of use last year when the Crew were looking to fill a hole in the center of defense made it clear he needed a change of scenery.

Keita joins Trusty, Abubakar, and Rosenberry as defenders who joined the Rapids hoping to jump-start their careers.  It worked for the later 3, and there's no reason to think it can't work for Aboubacar.  The knock on him early is that he is solid defensively but struggles with distribution.  That is certainly something that can be coached, especially by a head coach that was a all-MLS defender.

We've seen the FO move for players like this the year before they're really expected to contribute.  Certainly Trusty went through that pattern.  So this might just be getting the pieces in place for future moves, but this also might be an indicator that there's a move coming this offseason or in the summer.  There's been a lot of talk about interest in Trusty from Europe so if something happens that would be my expected move.

Somehow the Rapids have ended up with two Abubakar/Aboubacar's on the team (its apparently pronounced the same way).  My prediction is that our newest Aboubacar will replaced Rwatubyaye on my All-African XI team by the send of the season.  Keita was born and raised in the U.S. but also holds Guinean citizenship.