Leicester City In 100 Players: Kasey Keller
Keller played 125 games for Leicester between 1996 and 1999 and has since been inducted into the USA Soccer Hall of Fame.
While studying in the USA at the University of Portland for a degree in sociology, he played as a semi-professional for Portland Timbers, later signing for Millwall in February 1992. He was the Lions’ Player of the Year in 1992/93 and, after playing 202 games for the London club, he signed for O’Neill’s Leicester City for a reported fee of £900,000 with add-ons.
Kasey helped the Foxes finish in the top half of the Premier League in each of his three seasons at Filbert Street. He played in two League Cup Finals, winning one. He also played in the UEFA Cup for the Club. In addition, he won 21 of his 102 international caps while he was a City player.
Several times during his time at Filbert Street, Kasey had to fly out midweek to play for the USA national team and then return to Leicester by the end of the week. This was because CONCACAF games didn’t fall within FIFA’s schedule at that time.
His performance in the USA's victory over Brazil in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup Semi-Final prompted Brazil’s Romário to remark that Kasey’s performance that day was the best goalkeeping performance he had ever seen. Romário even shook his hand in the middle of the game.
In July 1999, Kasey moved to Rayo Vallecano, newly promoted to La Liga, before returning to the Premier League with Tottenham Hotspur on a free transfer in August 2001.
As a Spurs player, he conceded the last-ever goal at Filbert Street when he was beaten by Leicester's Matt Piper. He played in every minute of every game for Tottenham in 2002/03 and 2003/04.
After two seasons at Borussia Monchengladbach in the Bundesliga between 2005 and 2007, Kasey spent a final season in England with Fulham in the Premier League before returning to the USA to play for Seattle Sounders between 2009 and 2011.
In 2015, Kasey was inducted into the USA Soccer Hall of Fame. This was because, in addition to his club career, he’d also had a very distinguished international career with USA national teams. He was an Under-20s international in 1989. He was involved in the World Cup Finals in 1990, 1998, 2002 and 2006. He played in the 1996 Olympic team. He was also a CONCACAF Gold Cup winner in 1991, 2002, 2005 and 2007, and a runner-up in 1998.