André Gomes

Central Midfielder - Columbus Crew
31 Aug 2026
Monday
Process

Marked for André Gomes

4 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Brais Méndez sends Columbus Crew through

Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Brais Méndez obliged against Houston Dynamo. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Columbus Crew.

Market

Vegalta Sendai watching André Gomes

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Columbus Crew have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Max Arfsten

Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Squad

Tempers go at Columbus Crew

André Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Leandro Brey

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

Brais Méndez in the eights

A performance of 8.27 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.

Squad

When it matters, Brais Méndez plays

It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.

Squad

Éric Bailly knocks on the manager’s door

“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Éric Bailly trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.

Squad

The plan did not have a place for Éric Bailly

Nobody at Columbus Crew is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.

In brief

Back issues
2 Edition

The Columbus Crew Herald

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Market

LA Galaxy come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Columbus Crew did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Squad

Brais Méndez stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Brais Méndez and Columbus Crew agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Éric Bailly in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Columbus Crew this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Max Arfsten runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nəriman Axundzadə

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Columbus Crew get the job done against Toronto FC

A 2‑0 win over Toronto FC, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

Brais Méndez was on a different afternoon to everybody else

8.34. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.

Market

The Rudy Camacho conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: New York Red Bulls will make the call about Rudy Camacho this week. Columbus Crew have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

Squad

Brais Méndez knocks on the manager's door

“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Columbus Crew, and both men came out saying it was fine.

In brief