Wilfried Nancy’s gonzo Columbus Crew are deserving MLS champions

Only five years after the founder members nearly skipped town, the French manager's opportunistic, effervescent Crew SC are the MLS Cup winners for a second time in four seasons

Diego Rossi, Julian Gressel, Malte Amundsen, Rudy Camacho and Christian Ramirez played their parts. But the key transfer for the Columbus Crew, the move that turned a team that missed the playoffs in the previous two years into the 2023 MLS champions, was the capture of the head coach.

Whatever the Crew paid Montreal in compensation a year ago to hire Wilfried Nancy, it was worth it. First Nancy shaped Columbus into the league's most effervescent team. Then he molded them into its biggest winners.