Letter from Sporting CEO confirms Kamara’s loan-to-buy move to Norwich

That didn’t take long. Just hours ago news started to break about a potential Kei Kamara move from Sporting KC to Norwich City, and while we noted team and league approval were still pending, it looks like that’s been taken care of, too. Sporting CEO Robb Heineman, in a letter posted to the club’s website, explained the club has agreed to loan their leading scorer to the Canaries through the end of the Premier League season. Norwich also has an option to buy the Sierra Leone international at the end of the loan.

The letter may not reveal any earth-shattering secrets, but it’s still noteworthy. Here’s an MLS CEO taking time to outline to his fan base why his team not only let their leading scorer go but why it’s a good thing.

Possibly the key passage:

Strange as it may seem, we think this gives us the best opportunity to keep Kei long-term. As much as he loves Kansas City, Kei deeply wants to experience the EPL and this is his chance. So we’ve partnered with him to give him the chance to do so for the first 10 games this season. The loan proceeds will allow us to reinvest in our existing young core of players and solidify their futures in the club. In the event Kei is signed by Norwich City, our club would receive a very fair transfer fee that again, we’d use to reinvest in our club. If Kei returns in May, his contract is extended and we will work in earnest to sign him to a deal that keeps him with the club through the end of his career. If we hadn’t have done this, Kei would have left at the end of the year as a “free” player, similar to Roger Espinoza this past year.  So the risk we take is allowing him to go for 10 games this year, in hopes of getting him for years to come. 

Perhaps if Espinoza hadn’t already left, Heineman wouldn’t have taken the time to outline the club’s though process, but there’s no defensiveness in the subtext. Instead, Heineman’s outlining a policy that acknowledges Major League Soccer realities, one that paints Sporting as a club sympathetic to its players’ aspirations:

One of the frustrating things for fans, but a fact of life, is that our players will have aspirations to play in the top leagues throughout the world – most especially the EPL. If we are to continue on the track of being a well-respected organization for player development, then it will be inevitable that teams will come after our players and that our players will have desires to go test their talents in these top leagues. 

Suffice to say, this view has not always been present in Major League Soccer. Among fans, there are still misgivings that MLSappears to be selling more players, but as Heineman notes in the Espinoza example, there is a downside to holding on to players for too long. Like it or not, selling players (and recouping some of your investment) is an economic reality of the soccer world.

It’s a reality that will see Kamara in Norwich through May, by which time Kansas City will know whether they’ll need a replacement. If they do, Sporting gets money from Norwich which will help them replace Kamara in the summer window. If they don’t, they get their leading scorer back.