After making the MLS Cup final with the Columbus Crew last season, freshly-acquired New England Revolution Designated Player Kei Kamara said he wants to end the Revs 0-5 cold streak while leading his new team to the league’s ultimate prize.
“I returned back into the league to really try to win something, to win a championship,” Kamara said on Friday at Revs training. “I’ve watched this team be in the final over and over.”
Two seasons ago, the Revs pulled off one of their biggest roster moves in team history with the signing of then-German Bundesliga veteran Jermaine Jones, fresh off a strong performance for the United States in 2014 World Cup.
Now, after trading the rights to their old Designated Player to Colorado this past March, New England has pulled off another similarly significant move on Thursday for another veteran coming off an outstanding run of play.
“It gives us a true number nine,” Revs coach Jay Heaps said. “We have pieces that work off of that really well. It also gives us a lot of depth and it gives us a lot of attacking options to vary different things in the final third.”
The Revs traded general allocation money, targeted allocation money, a 2017 first round Draft pick in 2017, a 2018 second round Draft pick, and an international roster spot for the 2016 season in exchange for Kamara. ESPN FC reported that the amount of allocation is an MLS-record $500,000.
“When (Heaps) told me he’s wanted me since my Kansas City days, that put a smile on my face,” Kamara said. “It’s something that’s been in the works for a long time, so it made me feel good.”
The trade comes just days after a public disagreement between the 31-year-old Kamara and the Columbus Crew’s other DP, Federico Higuain, who pulled rank on Kamara to take a 53rd-minute penalty kick against the Montreal Impact. The two were reportedly supposed to alternate taking PKs, although Kamara was sitting on a brace at the time and on the verge of his first MLS hat trick.
“I can’t really say what led to the trade,” the 6-foot-3 Kamara said. “Obviously, the situation that I thought led to the trade, it was (made) clear to me, they said we didn’t trade you because of the incident that happened over the weekend.”
After the game, Kamara inferred to the media that he finished behind Toronto FC forward Giovinco in the 2015 Golden Boot race because of a lack of PK goals. Kamara and Giovinco both finished with 22 goals last season, but the latters’ superior assist numbers served as the tiebreaker. Kamara also finished runner-up to Giovinco for the Landon Donovan MVP Award.
“It’s a shock in sports, the kind of records that I put up for the club and going into the final, and even starting this year,” Kamara said. “I was looking forward to doing more… They were thinking otherwise and to me, I can’t debate and stop anything from happening. It’s all about moving forward.”
Kamara had a sunnier disposition about his future with the Revs, who have gotten off to a lackluster 1-3-7 start while dealing with injuries to forwards Charlie Davies, Juan Agudelo and Teal Bunbury.
“I’m not coming into the locker room as a shy guy or a new guy in the league,” Kamara said on Friday at Revs training. “I’ve played under numbers of coaches and numbers of teams in this league and most of those teams were really successful. For me, it’s really (about) bringing everything that I learned from those lockers rooms, from those veteran players and those coaches back into this locker room and hopefully I’m able to add something different.”
Kamara has five goals over nine games this season, and also scored four more goals in last year’s postseason as he helped the Crew to their second MLS Cup final, and first since 2008. The 11-year-veteran ranks second in goals among active players with 79, ranking behind only Chris Wondolowski.
The Revs are Kamara’s fifth MLS team. His longest stretch with a former team was a five-year spell with Sporting KC from 2009 to 2013 before a mid-season move to then-English Premier League side Norwich City. He later played for Middlesborough of the English League Championship until returning to MLS in 2015. Kamara’s Sporting KC teams finished with the top record in the Eastern Conference twice, won a U.S. Open Cup title and then the MLS Cup in 2013 after he left.
“He’s going to add that aerial battle, that physicality for us, and add more depth to our team, which is going to be great now that we have some home games coming up and some games where we need to get wins,” said Teal Bunbury, who played with Kamara for four seasons in Kansas City.
“We started up something really good again in Kansas City,” Kamara said of playing with Bunbury again. “It’s really good to have a connection with somebody like that.”
Kamara said he also introduced himself to left back Chris Tierney and told him that he was going to make his left foot sore from all the crosses he wanted Tierney to send in to him.
“I think it’s a good pickup,” midfielder Lee Nguyen said. “He’s proven to score a lot of goals in this league and we could definitely use his caliber. And his goals.”
Kamara said he’s ready to go a full 90 minutes if called up in Saturday’s home match at Gillette Stadium against the Chicago Fire — the first of a three-game home stand.
“I played in the game last weekend,” Kamara said. “(Heaps) said he was going to talk to me some more. But I’m here. I’ve started all the games in the season so far and I’m ready to play.”
So glad Kei is happy now.
He’ll be tantruming again. Give it a few months