Maxime Crépeau with Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Maxime Crépeau, who has arguably been Vancouver Whitecaps FC's most consistent and influential player since his arrival, is now a member of the Los Angeles Football Club. Sporting Director Axel Schuster has described the circumstances as a "very special personal situation," but did not elaborate much further.
"It was big enough, serious enough, that we understood we had to work on a solution together with him," said Schuster on Thursday after the trade was announced.
"He had to leave Vancouver to solve this problem."
In a statement, Crepeau thanked the club for working with him to find a solution.
"Thank you to everyone for the wonderful messages you have shared with me, as this is personally the hardest decision I've had to make in my professional career," he said.
The deal, which almost seems an afterthought to this shocking news, will see Vancouver collect $1,000,000 USD in general allocation money, spread out over four years. Vancouver will also receive Los Angeles' first round pick in the 2025 SuperDraft, as well as additional general allocation money should certain performance metrics be met. Vancouver will also retain a percentage of any sell on fees.
"We are thrilled to add a goalkeeper of Maxime's quality to our roster," said LAFC's co-president and general manager John Thorrington, a former member of Vancouver Whitecaps himself. "We consider Maxime to be one of the top goalkeepers in MLS. Like us, we know he is committed to winning, and his leadership and experience will contribute to our success on the field."
The forced sale developed rapidly, Schuster added.
"We got to a point... where we think the worth of Max got acknowledged, and that leaves us now in the situation where we have a chance to do other things that we were planning to do," he said.
"In the last year, he was obviously a key factor for our success. We had a few games where he saved us," Schuster noted.
"We know how close the race was at the end, we know every point counts at the end. There are a lot of moments that I keep in mind where he had a huge impact to get to those points that brought us over the line to playoffs."
With Crepeau's departure, all eyes are cast towards youngster Thomas Hasal.
"We feel very good with Thomas," Schsuter said. "Thomas has much more experience and games played than when Max arrived at this club."
"We think we have done the right thing in the long term," Schuster added. "In the short term, definitely it creates problems for us. But we also like to get challenged."
With challenges like this, who needs opponents?