A day that ends in Y - more drama in Montreal

Kei Kamara vs. Olivier Renard is the battle of the pre-season so far

Photo by Tamara Gak on Unsplash

Kei Kamara is a player that always seems to find the drama. Wherever he has played in MLS — and it’s a lot of places. Up to nine now, with two stops in Columbus — it always seems to end poorly.

It’s said that if you always seems to find drama that you might, in fact, be the drama. If that’s the case with Kamara it doesn’t really fit with the persona that he puts forward. He’s been a fan favourite wherever he’s played. In fact, he’s a rare unicorn that seems to be liked even in places he hasn’t played.

Yet, something seems to be going on.

The latest drama kicked off this week when Montreal fans woke up to an Instagram post by Kamara saying that he was heartbroken to have put in a trade request to Montreal. The post went on to say that he had hoped to finish his career in Montreal and to even stay there beyond this career to work on the technical staff.

This all seemed to be a surprise to Montreal. Later that day, GM Olivier Renard told reporters that the club was working under the impression that Kamara was returning to Montreal in 2023, having exercised the club option on his deal last fall.

Renard went on to say that they had looked at the trade request when it became clear that the relationship had broken down, but they weren’t in a position to just do whatever the player wanted.

It’s very much a he said, he said situation. As stated, Kamara often finds himself in these situations, so you might be inclined to think that he might be the one provoking things now. However, we’re talking about Joey Saputo’s Montreal here.

Drama is in their DNA. So, who knows?

Reporting today (link in French) by TVA is suggesting that the dispute is tied into the same situation that resulted in Wilfried Nancy walking away/being forced out and that Kamara has asked to be moved to Columbus to play under Nancy in 2023.

That must have been a hell of a fight that Nancy and Saputo had last summer.

Taken in isolation, losing Kamara isn’t the end of world for Montreal. He was solid for them last year, but at 38 he only has so many minutes left in his legs. It might be for the best to move on, especially in a year that looks to be a rebuilding season for a Montreal team that has lost much of the talent that lead them to a third overall finish last season.

Can you take it in isolation though? Yes, it might be Kamara driving the drama here, but it’s probably coming from the club too. Lots of drama to go around. Montreal fans might shake that off and think that the Club Formally Known As The Impact thrives in that setting, but that would be mostly wishful thinking.

They have occasionally been OK, in spite of it, is more like it. That’s probably why Montreal’s greatest moments have come in the CCL (and the V-Cup, which they win to qualify for it), a tournament that is more about short sprints of brilliance than sustained success. They can do the former. The latter, well…you’ve been watching this off-season, right?

At some point, Montreal should probably address its drama problem. It’s hard enough to attract American players to Canada (and, like it or not, you need to nail your domestic* players to be successful in MLS) and even harder to get them into French Canada. Most players run away from drama. Don’t give players a reason to run away.

*American players are considered domestic players for the Canadian teams, as are Canadian players

First things first, however. Montreal needs to deal with Kamara. How do they do that?

They trade him, or they buy him out with their one buy out per year. You’d assume Nancy wants him in Columbus though, so you can probably salvage something out of a bad situation. Don’t expect much — this screams second round draft pick to me — but anything is better than having him on the roster taking up a spot and salary without playing.

Then you get on with it. Just another day in the life of CF Montreal