Issa Tall — General Manager

Issa Tall was named the Columbus Crew’s sixth full-time General Manager on June 6, 2024 and is entering his third season in the role. Tall serves as the Crew’s Chief Soccer Officer and oversees all sporting elements of the Club from the First Team to the Academy, including technical staff; player personnel, development and engagement; scouting and analytics; performance and medical services; team operations and administration; and strategic projects.  

Tall joined the Crew as Assistant General Manager of Player Personnel & Strategy in 2019 and has significantly impacted Club-wide personnel decisions and long-term planning throughout his time with the Club. He also oversaw the team’s scouting, player personnel and analytics processes in his previous position. During his tenure with the Crew, MLS’ first Club has won two MLS Cups (2020 and 2023), Leagues Cup 2024 and the 2021 Campeones Cup.  

Over the past three years with Tall’s leadership, the Crew have obtained the second-most points in MLS play (177) and are one of only two Clubs to amass 50 or more points each of those campaigns, along with FC Cincinnati.  

This past offseason, Tall spearheaded the global search that resulted in Henrik Rydström being named the ninth-full time head coach in Club annals. Rydström, who possesses 10 years of coaching experience, including seven as head coach of Swedish sides following a 24-year playing career – most recently led the Allsvenskan’s renowned Malmö FF to back-to-back league titles (2023, 2024) and a Swedish Cup victory (2023-2024), completing the club’s first such double since 1989. 

In addition to acquiring new players during the 2026 offseason, Tall and the Crew complemented external transaction with the elevation of Crew personnel, including three Homegrown signings – forward Chase Adams and defenders Quinton Elliot and Owen Presthus – and inking draft picks goalkeeper Luke Pruter and midfielder Zach Zengue to First Team deals. The three Academy promotions bring the Club’s Homegrown contracts to 27, including 11 since Tall came to Columbus. In 2025, eight players on the Crew’s First Team roster received senior national team call-ups, while 14 Academy products earned call-ups for their respective youth national teams.  

Last season, the Crew registered 54 points to tie for the fourth-most in Club history. In addition to having a versatile roster that possessed 16 unique players who posted a goal and the same total to earn an assist, Tall directed the acquisition of Designated Players Wessam Abou Ali from Egypt’s Al Ahly FC and Daniel Gazdag from the Philadelphia Union, plus U22 Initiative transfers Ibrahim Aliyu from the Houston Dynamo FC and Hugo Picard from France’s En Avant Guingamp.  

In 2024, Columbus reached the Concacaf Champions Cup Final for the first time in its history and claimed the Leagues Cup 2024 trophy. With those accomplishments, the Crew became the first MLS club to play in three major tournament finals in a span of nine months, sparked by their 2023 MLS Cup title. Despite playing a franchise-high 50 matches across all competitions, the Black & Gold set Club records for regular season points (66), wins (19), goal differential (league-best +32), away wins (9), goals (72), away goals (34) and unique goal scorers (18).  

Players acquired from Tall’s efforts also earned multiple individual honors in 2024. Defender Steven Moreira was named the MLS Defender of the Year and forward Cucho Hernández finished second in the 2024 Landon Donovan MLS MVP voting, with both receiving MLS Best XI Presented by Continental Tire honors. Patrick Schulte was one of three finalists for Goalkeeper of the Year, and Moreira, Hernández, defender Rudy Camacho, midfielder Darlington Nagbe and forward Diego Rossi earned 2024 MLS All-Star recognition as the Crew’s five selections led the league.  

Tall served an integral role in the Club’s hiring of Head Coach Wilfried Nancy in December 2022, as well as the Club’s acquisition of top international talent while emphasizing the importance of elevating player performance throughout the Crew organization. In 2023, the Crew and Nancy – the 2024 Sigi Schmid MLS Coach of the Year and 2023 finalist – in their first season together lifted the MLS Cup; tied a then-franchise record with 57 points (third in the MLS Supporters’ Shield); posted a MLS-best 67 regular season goals, their first time pacing the league in the category; and led the league and set Club standards in many major statistical categories for performance at home. 

The success in 2023 occurred following one of the Crew’s most active summer transfer windows, highlighted by the incoming transfers of 2020 MLS Golden Boot winner Rossi and defender Yevhen Cheberko, the outgoing transfer of Lucas Zelarayán and trades for Julian Gressel and Camacho. The Crew also received tremendous contributions from talent developed within the Club: Homegrown midfielder Aidan Morris, a 2023 MLS All-Star and 22 Under 22 presented by BODYARMOR selection; 2022 MLS NEXT Pro Goalkeeper of the Year Schulte and Homegrown midfielder/defender Sean Zawadzki, who both received their first U.S. Men’s National Team call-ups; and 2022 MLS NEXT Pro Best XI defender Mohamed Farsi. 

Tall’s contributions were paramount as the Crew executed the highest-profile transfers in club history to land 2020 MLS Cup MVP and 2021 MLS All-Star Lucas Zelarayán in 2020 from LIGA MX’s Tigres UANL; 2023 MLS Cup MVP and Leagues Cup 2024 MVP Hernández from the English Premier League’s Watford F.C. in 2022; Rossi from Turkish Süper Lig side Fenerbahçe S.K during the 2023 summer transfer window and Abou Ali last year. He also fostered the Club’s trade with Atlanta United in 2020 to acquire 2022 MLS All-Star and Captain Darlington Nagbe, one of the most respected players and decorated champions in MLS history. 

Midway through the 2024 campaign, Tall and the Crew completed the transfer of Columbus-product Morris to the English Championship’s Middlesbrough FC, fulfilling a long-desired aspiration of the Crew Academy product to play in Europe. Prior to the 2025 season, Tall also secured the largest transfer fee in Club annals for Hernández, who joined historic La Liga side Real Betis in January. Following development with the Crew, the team also secured the transfer of 2022 MLS NEXT Pro MVP and Golden Boot winner forward Jacen Russell-Rowe to Ligue 1’s Toulouse FC prior to the 2026 campaign.  

As a further testament to the Club’s commitment to the player pathway, the Crew Academy was named the 2023 MLS Mark Abbott Club Awards Academy of the Year by its peers. Seven players have signed Homegrown contracts since 2024 – midfielders Taha Habroune and Cole Mrowka (2024); goalkeeper Stanislav Lapkes and defender Tristan Brown (2025); and Adams, Eliot and Presthus (2026). Brown (17 years, 15 days), Mrowka (18 years, 39 days) and Habroune (18 years, 68 days) progressed to rank among the four youngest Crew players to make their MLS debuts.  

Additionally, Tall has been pivotal to ensuring Crew players, coaches, technical staff and their family members have top-notch resources and amenities to succeed on and off the pitch, particularly with his oversight to establish the OhioHealth Performance Center in June 2021 and support to open ScottsMiracle-Gro Field in July 2021. This past year, the Club completed a multimillion-dollar project to renovate unoccupied office space at Historic Crew Stadium to construct first-rate Academy preparation resources, including a new gym, modernized work and meeting spaces, multiple classrooms and more.  

Prior to Columbus, Tall gained critical experience at FIFA’s Headquarters in Zurich (2016-2019), where he worked in the Federation’s Team Services and Competition Department – the group responsible for organizing the World Cup and other FIFA competitions. He was a primary liaison for all international delegations participating in major FIFA tournaments, including the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil and the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, he led the revision and implementation of the current FIFA World Rankings. 

Tall established a strong foundation in Major League Soccer as a key contributor to Toronto FC’s Player Personnel and Scouting Department (2014-15) and MLS Headquarters’ the Player Competition Department in 2013. With Toronto, he directed the formation of the Club’s scouting and analytics processes and resources. 

A native of Mulhouse, France, Tall graduated from Adelphi University, where he made 41 appearances and posted 24 goals from 2009-2011before working as an assistant coach. In 2019, he earned ASC Player of the Year and multiple All-Freshman Team accolades after finishing second in NCAA Division I for goals (16) and goals per match (0.89). Prior to his college career, Tall competed with RC Strasbourg Academy and helped the club win the French National Cup in 2006 and two Regional Championships (2003 and 2004).