Keller Eager to Play

By Zac Lee Rigg

LOS ANGELES, CALIF. --Bookends are nice. Kasey Keller grew up in the Northwest, and began his career with the Portland Timbers. Beginning in 2009, he will join Seattle Sounders FC as the expansion team debuts in Major League Soccer.

The 38-year-old has had one of the most storied American careers to date. He has played in the top divisions of England, Germany, and Spain in a European career that has spanned 18 years. He also captained Borussia Monchengladbach. Only Claudio Reyna had previously captained a squad in Germany. On the international stage, Keller represented the USA in four World Cups, winning 102 caps along the way.

Before Keller closes the curtains on a legendary career, he’s going to bookend his story by returning home.

“I said the first day I went abroad that I was hoping to one day finish my career in the United States,” he said at the Honda Player of the Year Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. “I just didn't know if it would be possible.”

Thankfully for him, it has become very possible. MLS continues to expand. Besides Seattle in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010, MLS is currently reviewing proposals to add two teams in 2011.

“When I said I wanted to finish my career in the U.S. they didn't even have a league,” he explained. “I spent 18 years abroad, because when MLS finally had teams, they didn't have any near my home. Why would I play in Miami, five hours from my home? Europe is only 9 hours away. But when Seattle got a team I knew I had to grab the opportunity with both hands.”

News of Seattle’s new-formed team hit when Keller was at Fulham. He left the Cottagers at the end of last season with the promise of 2009 play, but hasn’t seen competitive action since.

“I've been training with the USL Sounders,” he said. “I'm getting ready.”

The USL Sounders will cease to exist starting in 2009, and that organization will morph into the MLS side which will employ Keller. But the towering ‘keeper is already an MLS fan. He’s been watching from across the Atlantic, but has seen enough of its impact on the English Premier League to have faith.

“It's grown a lot,” he said of MLS. “Players from MLS can go right from this league to England, like Carlos Bocanegra or Clint Dempsey. They've been professionals here and they go right into Europe. That's impressive.”

Coming back across the pond in the other direction, Keller knows he still has to work to prove himself, and that he can’t live off past exploits.

“You've got to have pressure, or you won't perform. I've been at enough new clubs where I had to prove myself, to fans, to coaches, to players, that I’m the guy. I still have to do the same thing. I don't want to go there with all this pressure of the hometown boy coming home and then not play well. I want to prove that I'm the guy.”

There may be pressure to perform, but Keller is eager to get going. After a couple months of training, but no matches, he’s getting jumpy.

“I'm getting a little twitchy,” he said. “I'm ready to start. I've got a couple of months to wait before I get to go.”

Zac Lee Rigg is an associate editor of Goal.com USA.