It is not surprising that there was serious skepticism about Kelsa among Shakhtar fans and a number of experts. But the Venezuelan very quickly and absolutely in a brilliant style proved that he is capable of being useful to the team both in the matches of the Ukrainian Premier League and in the matches of the Champions League. At some stage, Kevin became a kind of joker for the Miners, who entered the field as a substitute in the second half and during the several tens of minutes of playing time allocated to him, he certainly distinguished himself with a scored ball or an assist.
But with the arrival of Shakhtar coach Marino Pushych, the situation around Kelsa began to change. If Igor Jovičević had a young Venezuelan who was an important figure in the main squad and spent 576 minutes in 17 official matches (6 goals, 1 assist), then Patrick van Leeuwen had 298 minutes in 9 matches (1 goal, 1 assist). ), and under the leadership of Pushych spent only 204 minutes on the field in 10 games (1 assist). And this despite the fact that Dario Srna, who de facto brought the Bosnian specialist to the club, gave Kelsy 16 minutes of playing time in one match and thanked the Croat for his trust with 2 goals at once!
Becoming Pushych’s only third, or even fourth (taking into account Eginalda, whom Marino often played and continues to play at the position of central striker) option in the role of the tip of attacks, Kevin Kelsey is frankly “skis”. It was rumored that the Venezuelan also began to express dissatisfaction with his stay in Ukraine, where active hostilities continue against the Russian occupiers, which make living in the country frankly uncomfortable, especially for legionnaires, whose task is not to protect the state, but come here exclusively to earn money. However, it is possible that a certain kind of dissatisfaction of Kelsa began to be demonstrated precisely against the background of the absence of any serious prospects in the Shakhtar first team…
At the end of April, the Donetsk club agreed to release Kelsy. That’s true, only on loan, and in a rather unusual direction for the “miners” – to the North American MLS. The new team of the Venezuelan became “Cincinnati”, which leased Kevin until December 31 with an option to buy. Even then, in this decision of the “miners” management, both obvious pluses and no less obvious minuses could be seen, however, we already talked about this somehow on the pages of Sport.ua…
In the USA, Kelsy managed to make a name for herself very quickly. The Venezuelan scored his first MLS goal for “Cincinnati” in the second match, and for this he needed only 35 minutes in the shirt of the American club. Already on the next round after this, Kevin came out on top and scored again! And in just the first 11 matches for Cincinnati in MLS, Kelsa scored 5 goals, for which the forward needed to play 671 minutes. In other words, it took the Venezuelan an average of 134 minutes for each goal, or a little less than three halves – a very respectable indicator, as for a young football player who literally landed “from a ship to a ball”, that is, who ended up in a completely unfamiliar league for him .
And even if in the future Kelsi stopped scoring with the same regularity, distinguishing himself by the end of the season in MLS (not including playoff matches) with only one goal in 12 matches, it is important that the Venezuelan consistently appeared on the field, even if mostly only as a substitute.
In addition, Kelsey very quickly turned into one of the favorites of Cincinnati fans. A powerful, fast, aggressive and effective young striker – this is all about the Venezuelan. Obviously, for his debut season in MLS, his performance turned out to be more than successful, and in general, during his stay in North America, Kelsey became a highly liquid asset on the market for Shakhtar.
FC Cincinnati. Kevin Kelsey But the end of the year is already looming on the horizon, and “Cincinnati” has already completed its journey through the MLS playoffs, having been eliminated in the first round after three matches against “New York City” in a series of two victories (1:0, 1 :3, 0:0 and 5:6 – penalty kicks). Therefore, right now for the “orange and blue”, as well as for the Venezuelan himself, the moment of truth is coming, when the question of further cooperation should be resolved.
And here, rather unexpectedly, difficulties appeared. The fact is that Kelsey is more than satisfied in Cincinnati, and Kevin himself is glad to be in the club and would like to stay in it for a longer period, however… So far the situation looks like the Americans will not buy the Venezuelan from Shakhtar. The reason is that the 5 million dollars stipulated in the lease agreement with the Ukrainians is an obstacle for “Cincinnati” to arrange a full-fledged transfer of Kelsa.
In “Cincinnati”, as in general in the vast majority of MLS clubs, they are very serious about the issues of financial stability. North American football clubs try to conduct their activities in such a way as to avoid debts and take care not only of today and tomorrow, but also of the long-term perspective. And the financial landscape in MLS is still very far from what even middle-class clubs from the European top leagues can afford.
Therefore, 5 million dollars – a sum more than real and affordable by today’s standards for a young football player, who, moreover, has already proven himself in a positive way in the club – and became a kind of “apple of discord” between the bosses and fans of “Cincinnati”. The latter believe that the club must do everything so that Kelsey remains in the state of “orange and blue”, but the management continues to weigh all the pros and cons, assessing the risks of a potential deal. To date, it is only known that Cincinnati understands the following: investments of this scale require planning and confidence in quick payback, while betting on Kelsey is a risk, but losing him is also a risk.
Bargaining with Shakhtar about lowering the asking price for Kelsey in Cincinnati will also not work, since the Venezuelan really performed well and already has a number of “suitors” from Europe. As of today, it is known that at least four clubs from the Old Continent are interested in Kevin’s services, which are ready to take advantage of the delay on the part of “Cincinnati” and there is a buyout of Kelsa’s contract for $5 million. Therefore, the Americans will not be able to bargain, as well as there is practically no time left for them to think, since, according to our information, the buyout option in the Kelsa agreement between Shakhtar and Cincinnati is active only until the end of November, after which it will be considered unused
Does all this mean that Kelsey will return to Shakhtar and continue his career in the state of “orange and black” from the second half of the 2024/25 season? The probability of this is quite high, but by no means 100%, considering the presence of serious interest in Kevin from clubs from Europe. So far, everything indicates that if “Cincinnati” does not use the option to buy out the Venezuelan scorer, then the “miners” will immediately receive several offers for a football player from Europe, however, in this case, “Shakhtar” can already demand significantly more than 5 million dollars for Kelsi , and who knows what the reaction will be from potential buyers.
Be that as it may, the trip to MLS turned out to be very useful for Kelsa. There he had a stable playing practice, albeit as a rotation player, spending 1,366 minutes in 29 matches, which is already an improvement on the background of 1,067 minutes in 37 matches for Shakhtar. In addition, the North American market is currently a much more visible showcase for football players than the Ukrainian Premier League, and therefore if the “miners” want to sell Kelsey and “make money on it”, then there will be no problems with this.
But in general, if you ask Shakhtar fans, most of them would obviously be happy to see Kelsey again in the orange-black t-shirt of the Donetsk club. The Venezuelan may be an atypical transfer for the Miners, but he is one of the few newcomers of the Donetsk club since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, for whom the club’s selectors should definitely not be ashamed in front of the main investor and fans of the current champion of Ukraine.
Source: sport.ua