What do you do after a breakup?
If you’re Gershon Koffie, you throw yourself into your work.
Traded to the New England Revolution last week by the Whitecaps — the only club he’s known since coming to Canada from Ghana in 2010 — Koffie can’t afford to get nostalgic. Can’t afford to worry about the logistics of moving his life to the Boston area.
He’s back in Tucson, Ariz., where the Revs continue training camp, and there’s a starting spot to win.
“I’ve spoken to coach (Jay Heaps) and I just told him, ‘I’m here to work, I’m here to deliver,’” Koffie said by phone. “So my focus is on that more than anything."
Koffie, wearing No. 7, started and played the first half Wednesday as the Revs tied Salt Lake 3-3 at the Desert Diamond Cup preseason tournament.
He’ll have every opportunity to be a key player for the Revs, who’ve lost midfielder and designated player Xavier Kouassi to a torn ACL, and who’ve yet to re-sign U.S. international Jermaine Jones.
Like the Caps, the Revs have been a team on the rise. They’ve reached the playoffs the last three seasons and made it to the MLS Cup final in 2014, when they lost 2-1 to L.A.
Koffie admitted he’s still getting used to wearing a different crest, different colours, but he has a few familiar faces to help him settle in.
There’s another Ghanaian player in camp on trial, left back David Addy, who played with Koffie at Inter Allies FC in the Ghana Premier League.
And the Revs’ roster is sprinkled with ex-Caps: midfielders Daigo Kobayashi and Lee Nguyen, goalkeeper Brad Knighton and defender Jeb Brovsky, who is on trial.
Koffie also knows forward Charlie Davies from a stop in Sweden in 2009, and it was Revs assistant coach Tommy Soehn, the former Caps director of soccer operations, who brought Koffie to Vancouver.
“I’ve known Tommy for six years now and the relationship is still there,” said Koffie. “We talked sometimes, not about soccer but just about family and stuff."
The trade, Koffie admitted, was “very hard to swallow.”
He loved living and playing in Vancouver. He wanted to win a title here.
“I was very emotional,” he said of getting the news last week.
But Koffie was also understanding, and what’s perhaps most striking about this deal is how cordial it’s been.
Eric Hassli and Alain Rochat both left the club with bitterness, which never looks good. Amazing what happens if you’re just open and honest with people.
Koffie had heard the whispers, of course, and Caps coach Carl Robinson was talking to him about his future throughout training camp.
The Caps were exploring a transfer deal for Koffie in Europe and taking trade calls.
Robinson said there were multiple trade offers and he ran the New England option by Koffie, who agreed.
Koffie even seems to agree with Robinson’s assessment that he’d hit a ceiling in Vancouver and that a change of scenery will be good for him, although Koffie frames it differently.
“I’ve done what I have to do with the Whitecaps,” said Koffie, who stopped by the Caps’ offices to say goodbye to staff before leaving.
“It will give Deybi (Flores) and Russell (Teibert) and other boys chances, and it’s good for me to hear that (those guys will get more minutes).
“I’d love to see those boys playing and Carl can’t just bench me. So I think it’s a fair trade. It’s good for Whitecaps and it’s good for New England.
“I appreciate what Carl did and he’ll always be in my family, because he explained why this trade will be good for me and he helped me.”
The Caps freed up close to $250,000 in cap room on Koffie’s salary alone, plus whatever amount of allocation money they received from the Revs.
Allocation money can be used to buy down salaries against the cap, so the total value of this deal to Vancouver is significant — likely in the $400,000 range.
Koffie is also in the final year of his MLS deal, which means he’s free to sign a pre-contract agreement in Europe this summer and leave for nothing in January.
Combined with the anticipated move of Darren Mattocks and his near-$300,000 cap hit, those deals will essentially balance out Vancouver’s off-season additions of Costa Rican winger Christian Bolaños, Japanese striker Masato Kudo and striker Blas Pérez.
Smart moves from the Caps, even if it hurts to see Koffie go.
He’ll be back on June 18 when the Revs visit B.C. Place, and that date is already in the back of his mind.
It's what Koffie said he’ll miss the most — the stadium, the fans, the buzz here on game day.
He sees himself living here one day. He still hopes to close out his career here.
Asked to put the last six years into words, he struggled.
“I can’t say all that’s on my mind,” he said, “because we’d finish the conversation tomorrow.”
Source: The Provence