A FEW WORDS FROM KASEY KELLER
Kasey Keller’s still got it.
The Olympia native could have hung it up after a stellar 17-year career in Europe—where he was considered by most to be the best American goalkeeper export ever—but he came back to his adopted home of Seattle last year to captain the Sounders FC. He could have coasted into retirement—like some of his friends in MLS thought he would—but he was the second-toughest goalkeeper to score on last season. And as one of the oldest players in the league—he’s 40—he could play the part of the diplomatic elder statesman and serve up bland sound bites, but he’s more than happy to speak his mind.
• My biggest concern wasn’t that we weren’t going to get good crowds. My biggest concern was that we would be a disappointment.
• For the most part, you’re not coming to MLS to make money. If I was just going to play to make money, then I would have stayed in Europe. The main reason I came home was to be a part of something when I’m done playing.
• I had made a good living in Europe, but I hadn’t made a crazy living. I wasn’t coming home and looking to see which of Bill Gates’s homes I was going to buy.
• I see MLS being around in 30 years now more than I did probably 10 years ago. There were a couple times, I think, that MLS was close to going to the wall.
• I joke that the job that I truly want after I retire is [Sounders CEO] Tod Leiweke’s. I’m not going to retire in 2011 or 2012 or whatever and step right into Tod’s job, but that would be a pretty cool job to aspire to.
• The amount of pride I would feel as a GM or a head coach of an MLS franchise would depend on how many players I could develop who were being bought by teams in Europe. MLS teams have a $2.3 million salary cap. That’s an average salary for an English Premier League player. So how on earth can I try to keep this guy if he’s truly a world-class player?
• Sometimes, I just sit there and think, I catch a ball for a living. You know? That’s kind of a random thing to do and make pretty good money at.
• This is professional sports, and we all have a very finite playing career.
• If you’re a lawyer or a doctor, at 40 or 45 years old you’ve got all your bills paid off, you’ve got your practice sorted out, now you’re just hitting it. You’re just in your wheel house. Me? I’m basically done.
• In pro sports, if you’re doing things the right way with your city, people can live vicariously through you. They think they know you when they don’t.
• You can be popular as a player. You score a touchdown, and people are going to like the fact that you scored a touchdown. But they might not necessarily like you.
• I have some big rock star friends, and I’ve been backstage with them. I’ve not been in a lot of crazy stuff, but I tell you, there’s been a couple events that I’ve been to in the last couple months that are like, Holy shit, what the hell is going on here? I was propositioned on two separate occasions for threesomes with my wife.
• I remember a couple years after I got to Europe, a reporter asked me, “Do you think it’s a good thing that all of these foreign players are coming to play in England?” I said, “Well, I am one of those foreign players.” And he said, “Well, you don’t count.” Somehow, I had transcended being a foreign player.
• One of the worst parts of team sports is the subjective decision on who gets to play or not. If I’m a tennis player or a golfer, it doesn’t matter how bad I am; if I beat that guy, I beat that guy.
• I remember a player talking to me this season after we’d come out of a hard game. He was dead tired and mentioned something like, What could possibly be the difference between Europe and this game we just played? And I just started to laugh.
• Unfortunately, we have too many kids in this country who think they should be in Europe, being the leading scorer, but they’re not ready mentally to get there. Or, they’re not willing to go over there, start at a lower level, and then fight and improve and prove themselves. Nobody over there gives a shit what you did over here or who you are.
• I had an agent years ago that coined a phrase that I’ve quoted many times. He said the hard part about dealing with so many Americans was that they didn’t know that they didn’t know.
• People loved watching our games on TV because of the atmosphere at the stadium. You can feel that coming through the TV.
• I’ve had so many conversations with friends who have come home from Europe to play in MLS, were disappointed, and basically said, “What am I doing here?” And the hard part for me was to talk to them and say, “I’m sorry, but I haven’t had that experience.”
Published: March 2010
Great job on the article. For once, it feels like someone actually gets what we’re about. You described the supporter culture perfectly. Only thing you left out was the difference between fans and supporters.
Anyone can call themself a fan, only a few can call themselves supporters.
Great article! @Lukasz, they just substituted “Hardcore Fan” for supporter but meant essentially the same thing. Also, they forgot to mention the South Sound Supporters & Doyle’s Public House. Sounders til I die. :D
march 11th, at qwest, the hated portland timbers are in town for a preseason match! tickets are only 10 bucks. a perfect chance for those curious about the sounders to check them out. so be there and be LOUD and send those pissy little meth-heads from portscum back down i-5 south with their tails between their legs!!!!!!!!!
For the North Enders there is the All Nations Soccer Bar 130th & Aurora.
Bets place to catch the games is on the big screens at SPORT Restaurant & Bar at 4th Avenue No. (by Seattle Center). Great food & drinks and devoted fans…