Los Angeles FC announces the signing of MLS legend, Kei Kamara.
By Magdalene Konneh
Los Angeles FC has signed forward Kei Kamara to play through the 2024 season, with an option to extend for 2025.
Kamara has been a prolific Major League Soccer (MLS) player for 17 years, playing for 11 different teams.
He has appeared in 418 regular season matches, with 328 starts and 30,191 minutes on the pitch, and scored 144 goals, the third highest in league history.
He is also the active MLS player with the most goals and one of only 11 MLS players to score 100 goals. LAFC Co-President & General Manager John Thorrington has said that Kamara is “one of the all-time greatest goal scorers in MLS history and a great complement to our attack” and that they are pleased to have him on the team.
Kamara, who is 39 years old, has been named an MLS All-Star twice (in 2015 and 2023) and was part of the 2015 MLS Best XI after scoring a career-high 22 goals for the Columbus Crew. He also won the 2015 MLS Works Humanitarian of the Year award and the 2012 U.S. Open Cup with Sporting Kansas City.
Kamara is from Sierra Leone and has played for the national team, making 39 appearances, and scoring seven goals with one assist in all competitions, including 12 appearances in FIFA World Cup qualifying matches and three in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.
Kamara returns to Southern California, where he played for Leuzinger High School in Lawndale, CA, and Cal State Dominguez Hills. He began his MLS career as the ninth overall pick in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, playing for the Columbus Crew for his first two seasons (2006-2007).
He was then traded to the San Jose Earthquakes and later to the Houston Dynamo, where he scored 12 goals in 47 total appearances in 2008 and 2009.
Kamara played for Sporting Kansas City from 2009-2013, returned to the Columbus Crew in 2015, and then played for the New England Revolution (2016-17), Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2018), Colorado Rapids (2019-2020), Minnesota United FC (2020) and Montréal (2022).
Kamara played in Europe on loan with English Premier League club Norwich City in 2013 and then signed with Middlesbrough FC in the English Championship for the rest of 2014, scoring four goals in 25 matches. He returned to Europe in 2021 with Finland’s HIFK, scoring five goals in 14 appearances. While at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, Kamara scored 31 goals in 47 games and was named the 2004 California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Player of the Year.
He led the Toros to the 2004 and 2005 CCAA titles and the 2005 NCAA Far West Region title. In 2020, Kamara was inducted into the CCAA Hall of Fame.
