In its first season in Major League Soccer, St. Louis City SC promptly reached the playoffs. The outstanding man for the Missouri franchise was Roman Bürki. The ex-BVB keeper now received mega praise.
“I’ll go out on a limb and say: Roman is the best keeper who has ever played in the MLS,” enthused sports director Lutz Pfannenstiel in “kicker” and added: “He was for us this season, with his complete goalkeeping game and his charisma, a key to success.”
With five wins in a row, the team led by former Bundesliga professionals Bürki, Eduard Löwen and Joao Klauss had the best start for a newcomer in MLS history, secured participation in the playoffs early on and also made it at the beginning of October by winning the Western Conference Qualification for the CONCACAF Champions League is perfect.
Bürki “the face of a completely new club”
Bürki played for Borussia Dortmund from 2015 to 2022, but most recently he was only number three at the Revierklub. The move to the USA followed last summer.
“I knew that he had a soft spot for the USA,” said Pfannenstiel, referring to his efforts to find the Swiss: “Roman could have stayed in Europe and certainly earned more than here, but the project fascinated him, as well as the possibility of to be the face of a completely new club.”
At the beginning of September, Bürki told “Sport Bild” about his move to the USA: “I asked myself the question: Do you want to continue playing in Europe and have the feeling that you only mean something as a person if you perform and if not, in plain English, no one is interested in how you are doing personally.”
The 32-year-old also shot sharply against BVB. “I was disappointed that the people in charge had given me a new contract a year earlier and told me that they would bet on me,” he complained about his lost regular place.