ORLANDO — Columbus Crew winger Justin Meram was never going to play against Orlando City.
When Meram, who notably struggled early this year while with Orlando City, was traded back to the Crew in August, an agreement was made to ensure Meram wouldn’t be able to strike back against the Lions when the two sides met in Orlando City’s home finale, Crew coach Gregg Berhalter confirmed to Pro Soccer USA.
The Crew lost 2-1 to Orlando City on Sunday in Orlando City Stadium.
“I think that, first of all, it should be said that Justin desperately wanted to play in this game,” Berhalter told Pro Soccer USA. “He was eager to come back to Orlando and perform in this stadium and try to help our team win.
“Part of the big picture is when we did this trade, much like an inter-league loan, where there’s language that you can’t play against the team you’re getting loaned from, us and Orlando agreed that when we played Orlando, [Meram] wouldn’t play. It was a gentlemen’s agreement, but we’ll stand by it. I think even though we could have used it today, we stood by the agreement and he didn’t play. He didn’t travel.”
Berhalter first spoke with Andrew Erickson from the Columbus Dispatch regarding the arrangement after Sunday’s match, though Orlando City’s players hinted this week that Meram might not be able to come back to Orlando.
“It’s a big-picture type thing,” Berhalter said. “Say, for example, we weren’t able to get him back to the club because of that. For us, we accepted it. We said, ‘Hey, he’s going to help us in these games and not this one game and we’ll accept it.”
Meram was acquired by Orlando City from the Crew in the offseason as part of a massive roster rebuild in exchange for $750,000 of Targeted Allocation Money (TAM), $300,000 of General Allocation Money and a 2019 international roster spot.
He was sent back to the Crew at the start of August in exchange for $750,000 in TAM and a 2019 international slot, so Orlando City essentially paid $300,000 of General Allocation Money for six months with Meram.