Kasey Keller

Club career

Keller was born in Olympia, Washington, and attended North Thurston High School in Lacey, where he led his team to the state championship as starting goalkeeper and was a Parade All-American for three years. He chose the University of Portland under coach Clive Charles because of Charles's professional experience in England. As a freshman in 1988, Keller helped the team reach the NCAA men's soccer final four; he earned first-team All American as a senior and was the 1991 Adidas Goalkeeper of the Year.

During the 1989 college off-season, he played for the Portland Timbers of the Western Soccer Alliance, allowing only four goals in ten games for a 0.38 goals-against average and eight clean sheets, and was named league MVP. That same year, he split time with the U.S. U-20 national team, finishing fourth at the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup and receiving the tournament's Silver Ball as second-best player. After being on the U.S. national team for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, Keller signed with English club Millwall, playing there from 1992 to 1996 and making 202 appearances.

He was voted Player of the Year for 1992–93 by fans and also won the Junior Lions and Disabled Millwall Fans' awards. When Millwall were relegated to the Second Division, Keller was transferred to Leicester City for £900,000 on August 15, 1996. In his first year at Leicester, he helped the team win the 1997 League Cup and reach the final again in 1999. He left for Spain on a free transfer, signing with newly promoted Rayo Vallecano for the 1999–2000 season and playing there two years.

In August 2001, Keller returned to England on a free transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, where he won the starting spot and played every minute in both the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons.

International career

Keller earned his first senior cap against Colombia on February 4, 1990, and was Tony Meola's backup at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He was not selected by U.S. coach Bora Milutinović for the 1994 FIFA World Cup but was chosen by Steve Sampson for several tournaments, including the 1995 Copa América, where the team finished fourth. Keller played two games during the 1998 World Cup and started all three matches as an overage selection for the 1996 Olympics.

He was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year three times: in 1997, 1999, and 2005. His most famous clean sheet came in the 1998 win versus Brazil, where he made ten saves in a 1–0 shutout; Brazilian player Romário remarked that it was the best performance by a goalkeeper he had ever seen. The performance was commemorated in the song "Kasey Keller" by the band Barcelona. Keller and Brad Friedel competed for the U.S. goalkeeper position; Keller started in 1998 but was second choice to Friedel in the 2002 FIFA World Cup.

He has the second most caps and wins of any U.S. men's goalkeeper, with 102 caps and 53 wins, behind Tim Howard, and remains the all-time leader in clean sheets with 47. Keller capped the U.S. run in the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup with a clean sheet in the final against Panama and two saves in the penalty shootout. He started the first seven games of the final round of 2005 World Cup qualifying, recording five consecutive clean sheets and 507 consecutive goalless minutes.

On May 2, 2006, Keller and Claudio Reyna became the first two American men named to four World Cup rosters. In the 2006 World Cup, he played all three games and was named Man of the Match in the 1–1 draw with Italy. Keller is the only U.S. player to participate in both the 1990 and 2006 World Cups.

Personal life

Keller lives in Seattle with his wife Kristin and their twins, who were born in late August 1997. His career took him to London, Madrid, and Germany, where the family once lived in a castle built a thousand years ago. While overseas, he became fluent in both German and Spanish. He explained to the New York Times that he passed on offers from European clubs to join Seattle, wanting to give his children stability after they had changed schools with each of his moves.

During his time at Millwall, he wrote two academic papers on the club's hooliganism as part of earning a sociology degree. Late in his Sounders career, Keller was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma and received treatment from 2018 until he went into remission in 2021. A street near his high school in Olympia, Washington, was renamed Kasey Keller Drive in the 2000s. In 2016, he and fellow former USMNT goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann started coaching the boys' soccer team at Newport High School in Bellevue. He also holds a minority ownership stake in AC Boise, a USL League One club.