Aboubacar Keita is a 6’2, 180 pound central defender from Columbus, Ohio who developed in the Crew Academy.
In the Fall of 2018, in his Freshman year with the University of Virginia, Keita started all 17 games for the Cavaliers and earned All-Atlantic Coast Conference All-Freshman Team honors.
The video below has highlights from the 19 year old Keita’s time at Virginia as well as Crew President Tim Bezbatchenko’s thoughts, reasoning on the Keita signing.
Great to have a President and Owners that update us almost daily with video clips, radio, and etc. Loughnane might want to try it their in Austin. ? Bezbatchenko saying things I like to hear here. Crew need to push their academy and homegrown development closer to NYRB levels. pic.twitter.com/HQwMieRFv5
— CREWTURE (@crewture) January 22, 2019
It appears Columbus wants to develop their Academy even more so and have more Academy and Homegrown players eventually into the first team.
Hopefully that leads to a Columbus Crew II down the road for these players to develop at.
Columbus has other recent academy players who have had top Freshman seasons as well in Zawadzki and Biros.
Congrats to Keita @Aboubacar_11, great to see another homegrown signing.
As a freshman Keita started 17 games for UVA, Biros started 17 for Akron, and Zawadzki started 13 for Georgetown. So wonder if eventually could be a few more down the road. pic.twitter.com/qG0GliZ8j7
— CREWTURE (@crewture) January 22, 2019
It would be nice if in a season or two those two or another academy product joins Keita.
It appears to be more of a possibility and a priority with Bezbatchenko pulling those strings.
Columbus Crew
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