Mike Keeney embodies a certain type of American soccer story. You know the one: a young man packs a bag with some clothes and a dream, stuffs a couple hundred dollars into his pockets, hops a plane to Europe and dives into football on the continent. He struggles and works, embracing any opportunity while battling negative perceptions and reality. Eventually, he finds a place, making himself indispensable and building a career.
"Those first few years, I was scraping by trying to make make a living," Keeney told ESPN over Zoom. "I was sacrificing a lot of time and energy to train three, four or five teams.