MLS record-setter, vagabond Kei Kamara aims to fuel Fire

In between, the 38-year-old striker from Sierra Leone squeezed in seasons playing for Norwich City in the Premier League (2012-13), Middlesbourgh in the Championship (2013-14) and HIFK in the Finnish first tier (2021).

With 134 goals, Kamara is the leading goal scorer among active MLS players and tied for third all time.

With his goal-scoring ability, you'd expect Kamara to be a legacy player, someone teams build around. But although he's a fierce competitor, Kamara has also developed a reputation for testiness and selfishness, perhaps a reason for his vagabond status.

In 2016, the Columbus Crew suspended him for a postgame tirade toward a teammate.

"It's weird," he told reporters at the time. "I want to play, I want to win, I want to score goals. It's weird to say I'm selfish when I'm a forward, because that's just what we do."

Off the field, Kamara has a reputation for his outreach efforts. In 2015, he earned the MLS'  Humanitarian of the Year award for his educational outreach efforts in his native Sierra Leone.

"I'm a happy kid," he told Rolling Stone. "And if I'm happy all the time and I can make someone else happy, then I enjoy it."

Kamara hopes to use his goal-scoring skill to make the Chicago Fire happy in 2023. Both are fixtures in MLS, but neither has won a league trophy in the past 10 years. The Fire has fallen on hard times recently.

Chicago, which hosts the Philadelphia Union on Saturday, is mired in the middle of a decade-long slump, with some of the poorest performances and home attendance in the league. 

As smaller markets such as Nashville and Charlotte prove popular -- and profitable -- for MLS, the league may leave teams such as Chicago behind if it can't meet similar benchmarks.

For Chicago, then, the goal is clear: win big and often, with an eye toward growing its presence in the Windy City. 

For Kamara--now in his 18th professional season--helping Chicago achieve that goal could flip the narrative about his attitude.