Middlesbrough didn't see prolific MLS goalscorer with £900k deal - neither did Norwich City | OneFootball

Both Middlesbrough and Norwich City didn't see the best of Kei Kamara during his spells at the Riverside Stadium and Carrow Road.

Neither Middlesbrough nor Norwich City saw the prolific MLS goalscorer in Kei Kamara during his respective spells at the Riverside Stadium and Carrow Road.

As many clubs have discovered over the years, bringing players over from the MLS to English football is somewhat of a lottery.

When done right, teams can be injected with superb quality, and often on relatively cost-efficient deals. Get it wrong, however, and we've seen numerous examples of players failing to adapt to such a different footballing environment, and as such, become notorious transfer flops.

Unfortunately, in the case of Norwich City and Middlesbrough, they both found themselves seeing minimal returns on their investments on one player in particular, Kei Kamara.

Kei Kamara had shown signs of prolific goalscorer of the future prior to Norwich City switch

Having been selected by Columbus Crew as a first round draft pick in 2006, Kamara would spend 18 months with the Crew before being traded to San Jose.

After a season with the Quakes, he would once again be traded, this time to Houston Dynamo, before eventually being traded yet again in September 2009 to Sporting Kansas City.

Having only scored a handful of goals for each of his first three employers, it was with Sporting KC that Kamara would really announce himself on the MLS stage.

In just under four years with KC, the centre-forward would bag 33 goals in 107 appearances, with three double-figure scoring seasons to his name between 2010-2012 - per FotMob.

However, in late January 2013, the Sierra Leone international would briefly call time on his MLS career, as he signed for then Premier League Norwich City on loan for the remainder of the 2012/13 season.

The Canaries would record an 11th-placed finish in the top flight that year, but whilst Chris Hughton's side may have enjoyed a successful campaign, Kamara would struggle to make an impact at Carrow Road.

He would finish his brief spell as a City player having scored just one top flight goal in 11 appearances, and would return to Sporting KC in the summer of 2013.

Kamara doesn't enjoy fruitful spell with Middlesbrough either - He would go on to become all-time MLS great

After scoring eight times in 16 appearances upon his return to his parent club, Kamara caught the attention of Championship side Middlesbrough.

Boro boss Tony Mowbray was able to beat the deadline to bring the striker to the Riverside in September 2013, for a fee reported to have been worth £900k.

Kamara would pen a two-year contract with the Teessiders, and was confident that the club were a Premier League one in waiting.

He was right in many respects, as just two seasons later in 2015/16, Middlesbrough would indeed win automatic promotion to the top flight. Kamara, however, would play no part in that.

That's because after just one underwhelming season in the North East that saw him score just four Championship goals in 25 appearances, he would see his contract terminated in August 2014 by mutual consent.

Kamara has almost exclusively spent the rest of his career in the MLS ever since his Middlesbrough exit, where he has gone on to become one of the league's all-time greatest goalscorers.

Kamara is among the MLS' all-time leading scorers with over 140 regular-season goals in over 440 appearances, and is still playing in the league, having surpassed his 40th birthday as of May 2025.

How Middlesbrough and Norwich City would have loved to have seen that version of Kamara wearing their respective colours.