Palermo have swooped for Columbus Crew defender Giancarlo Gonzalez.

The Rosanero are prepared to pay €3.8m ($5m) for Costa Rican 'Pipo'.

"Obviously, we're going to miss Giancarlo," said Columbus Crew Coach and director of sport Gregg Berhalter.

"We were expecting him to be able to perform and to showcase his talents. What it does here is we establish ourselves as an environment that can increase the value of players. That's key in this thing."

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