CHARLOTTE — Sacha Kljestan shared a touching story on Friday, ahead of the LA Galaxy’s MLS regular season match against Charlotte FC on Saturday.
Kljestan relayed a chance meeting he had in a hotel with the parents of Chris Hegardt, a rookie midfielder with Charlotte. It turns out, when Hegardt was a boy, he met Kljestan in 2010 in Los Angeles while the youngster was undergoing treatment for liver cancer.
Kljestan said he gave him a jersey at the time, and he hoped Hegardt would return the favor, all these years later and with Hegardt a healthy young man now playing in the same league as the Galaxy man.