MLS: Top 5 strikers in the league right now
By Matt Coles
4. Kei Kamara
Coming in at No.4 on our list of the top strikers who currently feature in Major League Soccer is a man that has more years in the league than the rest of the top five combined, Sierra Leonean international Kei Kamara.
The African striker spent two years at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he played for the Toros 47 times, scoring 31 goals in the process. He also featured for Orange County Blue Star in the USL Premier Development League, showcasing his talents with 16 goals in 19 games.
MLS Career & Honours:
- Columbus Crew (2006-2007, 2015-2016)
- San Jose Earthquakes (2008)
- Houston Dynamo (2008-2009)
- Sporting Kansas City (2009-2013)
- New England Revolution (2016-2017)
- Vancouver Whitecaps (2018)
- Colorado Rapids (2019-)
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- MLS Joint Top-Scorer – 2015
- MLS Best XI – 2015
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- U.S. Open Cup – 2012
Kamara was drafted by Columbus Crew with the 9th overall selection in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, and he has since gone one of just 11 members in the 100 goals club in MLS, along with the likes of Chris Wondowloski, Landon Donovan and Jaime Moreno, to name a few.
It took the Sierra Leone international a few seasons to get fully up to speed in the league, spending time with the Crew, San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo before finding his feet with Sporting Kansas City, where he scored 37 times over four seasons, including his first two double-digit years, in 2010 and 2012. He helped Sporting to the U.S. Open Cup in the latter of those two seasons, his only silverware as a professional footballer.
After spending some time with Norwich City and Middlesbrough in the English leagues, Kamara returned to MLS for the 2015 campaign, and he had a career year to start his second spell with the Crew. He finished the regular season with 22 goals, ending the campaign as joint top-scorer alongside Sebastian Giovinco. The Italian took the Golden Boot thanks to the number of assists he had over the course of the campaign compared to the African. Kamara was named into the MLS Best XI for the first time in that same season.
Since then, he has had three straight double-digit years, scoring 12 times for New England Revolution in 2017, before having 14-goal seasons with Vancouver Whitecaps in 2018 and Colorado Rapids in 2019. The best African player to have ever featured in MLS will continue to look for goals in 2020, to add to his 127, with seven more taking him past Jaime Moreno to become the highest-scoring foreign player in Major League Soccer history.