He arrived with the winning grin of a European star and an uncanny ability to smack free kicks that seemed to defy the laws of physics. But soon, just like every Rapids franchise player before him, he went swiftly from a game-changer to an underachiever.

And then, just like the three Designated Players that had preceded him, he was gone.

At precisely 4 p.m. March 1, as the Major League Soccer roster compliance deadline arrived, the Rapids announced that they had placed forward Shkëlzen Gashi on waivers.

There are financial and roster compliance reasons behind the move. But ultimately, the Rapids’ decision comes down to a tougher decision of whether the Albanian international was going to help the team in 2019.

Colorado was pressed into the decision to some degree because the team was short on international roster slots for the upcoming season. As of Feb. 28, a day before the roster compliance deadline, Colorado had eight international players, but only six international spots. In order to rectify the situation, there were a few options available to the Rapids front office.

One way to solve the problem would be for the Rapids to purchase an international slot from another team with league-issued allocation money. This season, the going rate for an international slot ranged from $150,000 to $200,000 in either Targeted Allocation Money, General Allocation Money or a combination of the two.

Another option in some circumstances is for a team to convert an international player to a domestic one by having that player acquire a green card. However, that process is complicated, legal and entirely in the hands of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In past seasons, the Rapids have gone this route in order to free up international spots. Stefan Aigner, Nana Boateng, and Dominique Badji have all switched from internationals to domestic players through this process, and this past offseason Colorado midfielder Sam Nicholson also acquired a green card, reducing the overall number of Rapids internationals to seven.

Finally, the team could choose to trade or cut an international player altogether. Which is what the Rapids ultimately chose to do with Gashi. Related Articles Colorado Rapids announce final nine games on 2020 schedule

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On its face, the decision to cut the team’s second-highest paid-player is surprising. The decision seems to be sheer lunacy if you consider that the Rapids must pay Gashi his entire salary for 2019 (Gashi earned 1.67 million in 2018) and that he continues to count as a Designated Player for the 2019 season.

A source close to the Rapids told The Denver Post that there were no fewer than three factors that led the Rapids to waive Gashi.

First, there was the aforementioned problem of the international slot. Essentially, the Rapids most obvious play to resolve the situation was to buy an international roster spot from another team. But that involved a difficult choice regarding Gashi: If the Rapids weren’t getting nearly $2 million worth of production from him before, did it make any sense to spend an additional $200,000 to keep him? The source inside the Rapids indicated that the feeling began to emerge that Gashi was a sunk cost. The money spent on him was unlikely to be recouped through a sudden improvement in his play. All the more so, the team would be foolish to spend even more money in order to fund a disappointment.

It was also becoming clear in the run-up to the 2019 season that Gashi’s position on the team’s depth was sinking. In December and January, the team acquired four attackers in short succession. On Dec. 9, the Rapids traded backup goalkeeper Zac MacMath to Vancouver in exchange for Nicolas Mezquida, a strong ball-distributor and attacker.

They picked up veteran striker Kei Kamara in a trade with FC Cincinnati on Dec. 11, and followed that up a week later with the acquisition of quick-darting, slick-dribbling attacker Diego Rubio.

The team also drafted University of Denver phenom Andre Shinyashiki, a dynamic goal-scorer who was MLS-ready and had a limitless ceiling, with the 5th pick of the 2019 MLS SuperDraft.

All of those players occupied a role or a spot on the field that had previously belonged to Gashi.

As the 2019 season approached and the team went into training, the writing was on the wall for both parties to part ways.

Gashi told The Denver Post he noticed that the Rapids were no longer regarding him as a star or even a starting player.

“From day one in the pre-season I was only permitted to train with the youth,” Gashi said via text message. “In this situation, I stayed professional and scored two goals in two games.”

Gashi is referring to the final set of preseason matches which took place Feb. 16 and 23. The Rapids played a pair of games each weekend, splitting their squad into an obvious group of starters and reserves. Against Las Vegas on Feb. 16, Gashi scored in a lineup that included three rookies and four players that had only recently been called up from the Rapids Youth Academy for the match. The expected regular-season starters, meanwhile, played in a match later that day.

A week later, Gashi also found himself on the outside looking in. The LA Galaxy and Rapids played Feb. 23 and 24. Gashi was an unused sub Feb. 23, and did not play again on the 24th. It seemed obvious that for the coaching staff, Gashi simply did not rate. After that, Gashi’s release was almost a foregone conclusion, and even he knew it.

“They did not let me train and play in the last week of the preseason (from Feb. 23 to March 1),” Gashi said. “So from then on I knew that we would part ways.”

The league source acknowledged that, once the Rapids had completed their signings for attackers and all had emerged healthy and ready to start the regular season, the team knew that it was going to waive their former star DP.

That rough end is a long way off from where the Colorado Rapids were Feb. 1, 2016.

That day, when Gashi was originally announced by the club, the acquisition was hailed as an exciting and smart decision for a front office that had previously missed on a number of high-profile players. The Rapids’ previous designated players, Gabriel Torres, Juan Ramirez and Kevin Doyle, all underperformed. Doyle, the best of the trio, scored only 16 goals over three seasons. Torres looked spectacular at the start of his Rapids career, getting three goals and an assist in just seven games, but scored only seven more times over two years. Torres was both leader and scapegoat for a Rapids team in 2013 and 2014 that was hard to watch. Ramirez was the most disappointing of them all, as the young Argentinian wasn’t effective enough in the 2015 season to earn a regular place in the starting lineup. He departed from the team at the end of the 2015 season with just one goal in 27 games.

By contrast, all the indicators for Gashi showed that he was an exceptional attacking player with a track record of success. He finished the 2015 season with 22 goals for Grasshopper Club Zurich in the Swiss Axpo Super League, and the indication was that the goal explosion was no fluke as he had recorded 19 goals the season before. His laser-like accuracy with his left foot was exceptional enough that it earned him a spot on the Albanian National team, who selected him for the roster of players at the 2016 UEFA European Championship, perhaps the world’s most prestigious tournament outside of the FIFA World Cup.

All signs indicated that the initial decision to drop a large load of cash for Gashi was a good one. In 2016, his first year with Colorado, the Albanian tallied a team-leading nine goals, while also recording four assists in 2,123 minutes of play. His contributions on offense were a key component to the team’s impressive second-place finish in the Western Conference and run to the semifinals in the MLS playoffs.

Gashi’s abilities were never more on display than when he scored a go-ahead goal against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sept. 24, 2016. On a 40-yard free kick, Gashi hooked a ball to the left side of a leaping wall of defenders, before the ferocious spin he had imparted on it harnessed the full effect of the laws of physics to dart back inward, hooking forcefully into the top corner of the net. The goal stunned the 21,851 fans in attendance into a dumbfounded silence. A few weeks later, it would be voted as the MLS Goal of the Year.

That epic success early with Colorado was soon revealed to be a hiccup, though, rather than a trend.

Gashi’s 2017 season was a stop-start affair from beginning to end, punctuated by frequent injuries. Injuries to his Achilles tendon and his calf came and went throughout the season, and limited Gashi to only 1,034 minutes. In that time, he contributed a paltry two goals and one assist on the year. At the conclusion of that season, General Manager Padraig Smith addressed the injuries in a radio interview he did with Altitude 950. He chalked them up as the result of inadequate offseason fitness by Gashi in the runup to the season.

Smith expressed confidence, though, that with better planning, Gashi would come into the 2018 season better physically prepared. But Gashi’s 2018 season was no better than the year prior. Early injuries and shortened outings on the field indicated that his offseason regimen was still less-than-stellar.

Gashi spent most of the 2018 season as a substitute off the bench, playing in 21 matches but starting only nine. The bulk of those starts took place in September and October, after the Rapids had effectively been eliminated from the playoffs.

Gashi himself felt like the situation with the club was on the upswing from the latter end of 2018 onward.

“The coach, the GM and I had a great conversation before the season’s end game last year,” Gashi said. “They told me that I had the best work ethic and attitude because I gave them everything they wanted from my side.”

Gashi added that he didn’t give anything less than his best coming into 2019.

“All I did was work. I was fully motivated every day in the offseason to come back even stronger this year to achieve the goal of becoming MLS Champion. I came back with 6 percent body fat,” Gashi said.

Despite his feelings of frustration at being left off the starting lineup, then cut from the roster entirely, Gashi was overwhelmingly thankful to fans and the team.

“I want to thank them for their support over the last three years and I wish them all the best with a lot of moments to celebrate,” Gashi said. “I had an amazing experience in my three years in the Mile High City.”

Gashi has no immediate soccer plans. In response to being asked about his future, he told the Post only: “I am super excited about my future and I know it is going to be great.”

Many of the top leagues in Europe and around the world that might be interested in him have closed their transfer window, with only teams in Brazil, Japan, Sweden and Norway able to add players right now. A second transfer window for much of the world will not open until mid-summer. A team in MLS could still add him from now through May 7, if they can agree to salary terms and they are willing to use an international slot on Gashi.

Gashi’s chapter with Colorado is closed. But fans will likely have mostly fond memories of him, even if the early promise he showed ultimately gave way to expensive disappointment. Many fans will still choose to remember him as a fan favorite for his winning smile, his a warm demeanor and his pen, which was always at the ready to sign an autograph.