After sitting on Rayo Vallecano’s bench, American goalkeeper may be leaving La Liga
A large apartment building overlooks Rayo Vallecano’s training grounds at Teresa Rivero Stadium. During a recent training session, a man yelled from his window, loud enough for all to hear.
“Kasey Keller, why are you not playing?”
And the American goalkeeper only wished he could respond. Any response, of course, would merely exacerbate an already strained relationship with management of Madrid’s underdog club. It would also be incomplete, since Keller himself does not fully understand what has transpired in the past two months.
Keller has not played for Rayo since suffering a minor dislocation of his left shoulder during a March 5 game against Alaves. The injury should have only kept him out two or three games, Keller says, but Coach Juande Ramos has elected to stay with the team’s No. 2 keeper, Julen Lopetegui, a popular Spaniard.
“The toughest part about the whole scenario is that it has nothing to do with goalkeeping, and that’s the part that gets me more than anything,” Keller says. “If it was a case where I went through a bad spell and the manager decided to change things and the other keeper came in and played well, then you can accept that. You just wait for your time again.”
But Keller feels he has been treated unfairly and says he is planning to look into transfer possibilities when the season concludes. He has one year remaining on his contract with Rayo, but his representative, Colin Pomford, says there is serious interest from two clubs outside of Spain, neither of which he would name.
“Kasey played very well for 27 games and a lot of people have stated that he was consistently the best goalkeeper in Spain,” Pomford says. “He’s been very unlucky. He’s the No. 1 at Rayo, but the other guy came in, the team got some results, and you don’t change a good side. … [Ramos] has been very apologetic about it, but it’s the same as anywhere else: Everyone in the starting 11 is happy, everyone not starting is unhappy.”
Pomford acknowledges that he suspects there are reasons for Keller’s benching unrelated to his ability, but would not elaborate. The current situation has caught the mild-mannered Keller by surprise.
“I’ve been very, very fortunate in my professional career. This is the first time I’ve had to deal with this,” Keller says. “It can be tough being a foreigner at times, but I had never come across any of those issues. I was just the goalkeeper.”
‘EXACTLY WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR.’ The irony of Keller’s plight is how well his year was going until the injury. The club was exceeding expectations, Keller won two different national player of the year awards in the United States, and he was the only athlete invited to join the king and queen of Spain at a White House dinner in February.
In his first 26 starts, Keller had five shutouts while Rayo, promoted from the Second Division last year, staked a spot well clear of the relegation zone.
“It went from being a fairly unknown at a small club in Spain to being known by pretty much the total population of the country in a matter of months,” Keller says. “People stopping you on the streets, congratulating you. … Being in a different country, a new circumstance, a little better weather – in some ways it was like a whole new lease.”
After nine years in England, Spain provided a welcome change of pace. Now another change looks like it will come sooner than anticipated.
“That aspect is the tough part, because I really don’t want to leave Madrid,” Keller says. “Outside of football, this is exactly what I was looking for.”
The “new lease” mysteriously expired when an Alaves player collided with Keller as he went to grab a deflected ball with outstretched arms.
“I was exposed, and I got hit,” Keller says.
A string of good results for the club – three wins and three draws – began right after Keller’s injury and ended with a 2-0 home victory over league leader Deportivo Coruna. Then came losses to Malaga and Valencia in which the team conceded a combined five goals, and Keller was led to believe he would finally return to the lineup against Barcelona April 29. But he didn’t. Rayo pulled off a 2-0 upset at the Nou Camp.
Now it looks like Keller will finish the season having watched its last 11 games from the sideline.
“I just don’t like being lied to,” Keller says, adding that it happened on several occasions. “That’s difficult, because how do you go from there. The next time he tells you something, do you look him in the face and say, ‘I don’t believe you?’ … A lot of the things I was being told just didn’t make any sense. I wish I could say more, but it’s not the time.”
A RESPITE, OF SORTS, AWAITS. The time has come for Keller to return home and serve his country again, and he will be glad to get away from the situation for a while. But playing in the U.S. Cup in early June and World Cup qualifying starting in July, there will not be much time to relax.
“You’re teased with thinking you’re going to have a decent break in the summer, but it always seems to be taken from you at the last minute,” Keller said. “But I’m looking forward to the whole national team situation. We’ve had a lot of injury problems, and I just hope we can get everybody that Bruce wants to have on the field. If not, we’ve shown we have a lot more depth than we had in the past.”
Missing games in La Liga should not affect his sharpness much, Keller says, because he has a good goalkeeper coach at Rayo and has been pleased with his play in training. But he is eager to play matches.
Meanwhile, Keller will be watching to see where he will play professionally next season. Rumors that Ramos would be leaving the club were quelled recently, so some repair will have to occur if Keller is to return.
“It’s been crazy. In some ways it’s been my favorite year, in other ways it’s turned out to be one of my most hated years,” Keller said. “If I am [at Rayo next season], I am. That’s part of professional sports. I’ll do as good of a job as I possibly can.”
by Soccer America associate editor Will Kuhns