A pair of U.S. national team players will begin the European seasons with different clubs — Kasey Keller with Leicester City of the English Premier League, and Jovan Kirovski with Borussia Dortmund of the German Bundesliga.
Newly promoted Leicester acquired the former University of Portland star on a $1.4 million transfer from London club Millwall, where he had started in goal the past four seasons. Millwall’s demotion to the English Second Division meant an almost certain transfer for the American keeper.
Keller will be in the nets this weekend as Leicester opens Premier League play away to another promoted club, Sunderland.
Meanwhile, Jovan Kirovski’s long wait for his first pro contract is over, as he signed a four-year deal with the defending Bundesliga champion.
The 20-year-old American striker had hoped to sign with English champion Manchester United, the club with which he has trained in recent years, but he was unable to obtain a work permit.
He tallied 20 times in 21 games for Manchester United’s reserve team and scored the winning goal for the United States in the 2-0 win over Tunisia at Atlanta ’96.
Kirovski, born and raised in Escondido, Calif., of Macedonian parents, was considered a hot prospect on the European market. One scenario had Manchester United signing Kirovski and loaning him out to Dutch champion Ajax. Other clubs that were interested in him included PSV Eindhoven of the Netherlands and Bayer Leverkusen, the German club for which Kirovski’s U.S. Olympic teammate, Claudio Reyna, is a starter.
Kirovski will not have an easy time cracking the Dortmund lineup. It has one of the deepest squads in Europe