One of the Crew's newest members, midfielder Julian Gressel, may be as polished a podcaster as he is a soccer player. Gressel and his buddy, forward Fabian Herbers of the Chicago Fire, co-hosted “Zee Soccer Podcast” over the course of the 2022 MLS season. It got excellent reviews during its brief run of 20 episodes.

The description of “Zee” went like this: “Soccer, life in the US, and everything in between. Germans Julian Gressel (Vancouver Whitecaps) and Fabian Herbers (Chicago Fire), first competitors and now friends, share their weekly experiences on and off the field as they managed their way through the Major League Soccer season. Get an inside perspective of their personal lives, cultural challenges, and their German view of the beautiful game – pragmatic, honest and direct.”

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The Crew traded $500,000 in Guaranteed Allocation Money to the Whitecaps to get Gressel, who is in the final year of a contract that pays him $939,781 per. The GAM is split between this year and next. Under certain conditions (presumably, if Gressel re-signs with the Crew, for one thing), an additional $300,000 will be sent to Vancouver for 2024-25.

Gressel joined Kyle Robertson and me for the latest edition of the "Soccer Speakeasy" podcast last week. Pragmatism, honesty and directness were the hallmarks of the 19-minute discussion. For instance: When it was proposed to Gressel that, given the large outlay for his services, one would suspect that the Crew have designs on extending Gressel’s contract – and that he would be open to re-upping in Columbus, Gressel said:

"Yeah, that’s the plan. We’re at a position where conversations have started, or started before the trade even happened. Obviously, I don’t think (the Crew) just want to get me in for a few months and see me leave for free, especially after what they just paid for me in terms of allocation money.

"There are conversations that are ongoing, that aren’t finalized, or aren’t close to being finalized. I wanted to see everything. I wanted to make sure it’s the right thing for us (family). And I’m sure the Crew want to make sure I’m the right guy for them, as well, before I sign this, hopefully, bigger extension.

"Right now, we’re really excited to be here. I’m excited to get to know the team more, the city more. I’m excited to feel the stadium as a home player. … The contract conversations will happen between the club and my agent, and hopefully we can come to an agreement on an extension, and I’ll be here for a few years."

Gressel, 29, primarily plays right wing back, and he is penciled into that position in Columbus. But he’s versatile. He can play on the back line or on the front flank or even in the central midfield. Crew coach Wilfried Nancy loves players who can flex into different roles in his 3-4-2-1 formation. Nancy and Bezbatchenko went hard to recruit Gressel when they found out that he and his wife were looking for a landing place closer to the East Coast.

Since Gressel broke into the league in 2017, when he was MLS rookie of the year, he has racked up more assists (65) in that span than anyone other than Seattle’s Nicolas Lodeiro (a designated player making $3.257 million this season) and former NYCFC midfielder Maxi Moralez (who was a $3-million DP before he went home to Argentina, just prior to his 36^th birthday, earlier this year).

Gressel has won a Big East championship with Providence, an MLS Cup, U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup with Atlanta United and two Canadian championships with Vancouver. He has been integral to all of these trophies. He has also been traded three times − when he and Atlanta had different ideas on his value; when D.C. United was clearing cap space for a new coach (Wayne Rooney); and earlier this month, when Vancouver, Columbus – and Gressel and his wife – came to an understanding.

If there is a contract extension, Gressel-to-Crew would not be unlike Johnny Gaudreau-to-Blue Jackets. These are cases when an elite player in mid-to-late prime chose Columbus, in part for family reasons, in part because they saw the stuff to win.

“My agent brought us Columbus’ interest,” Gressel said. “I know at the end (of the season) I’m free and could choose a little more where I want to go. I was excited (the Crew) wanted me right away. Other teams we reached out to were kind of saying, ‘Yeah, let’s see what happens, and wait until the end of the year.’ … Wilfried and Tim wanted me in now. It kind of pushed it over the edge. It was like, ‘OK, this is going to be a really cool thing.’ ”

He’ll see. We’ll see. If it all works out, he’ll get a bigger contract, because he’ll deserve it.

marace@dispatch.com

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Arace: Julian Gressel has eyes on long-term stay with Columbus Crew