Kamara overtakes Donovan: who is MLS’s all-time top goalscorer?

Kei Kamara overtook Landon Donavon to become the second-highest scorer in MLS history on Saturday, netting his 146th goal in the North American league as Los Angeles FC thrashed San Jose Earthquakes.

Kamara, 39, headed in Mateusz Bogusz’s 33rd-minute cross to score LAFC’s third goal in a 6-2 victory at BMO Stadium. The win was the Black and Gold’s seventh in their last eight MLS matches, and left the team top of Western Conference, level on points with Real Salt Lake but with a game in hand.

Kamara, who joined LAFC from Chicago Fire in March, had drawn level with Donovan’s career haul of 145 MLS goals on Wednesday, when he scored a last-gasp equaliser in his side’s 1-1 draw with Austin FC. He had been one behind Donovan for a year, having chalked up his 144th MLS goal while playing for Chicago in June 2023.

What did Kamara say about historic MLS goal?

“I hope it makes a lot of people happy,” the veteran said after his landmark goal this weekend. “I know it makes my friends and family happy because they’re the ones that have been counting the goals all these years and they get to text me. I see their texts, how happy they are. Friends and family, guys that I went to school, high school, college, with.

“But Landon is the greatest American soccer player to ever live, so for my name to be called next to his for this long, it was an honour. It’s still always going to be next to Landon. I mean, the [league MVP] trophy is named after him. So when I get to be mentioned next to a great soccer player like that, it’s kind of cool and I’m a fan.”

Who is the top scorer in MLS history?

Kamara is a quarter-century of goals behind MLS’s all-time leading scorer, Chris Wondolowski, who was on target 171 times in 16-year league career that saw him play for San Jose Earthquakes and Houston Dynamo.

Kamara not chasing Wondolowski’s record

Early in their soccer careers, Kamara and Wondolowski were counterparts in the second-tier of the US’s college game. Later, they were team-mates at the Dynamo in 2008 and 2009 - and the LAFC striker says he’s happy to stay at No. 2 on the list, behind a player with whom he developed a “brotherhood” in Houston.

“Being in California and growing up here, I remember going to Cal State Dominguez Hills and I was one year behind Chris Wondolowski, who was at Chico State,” Kamara recalled. “For him to be in the league where we actually ended up playing in Houston together, that was when we started having this brotherhood, this love to say, ‘We want to […] represent Division II [college] soccer,’ because it wasn’t easy for players to make it from Division II to the league.

“He just kept setting the bar higher and higher for me every year and I said to him, ‘You keep going, I’m just going to be right behind you.’ So to be one and two [on the MLS top scorers’ list], it’s just a dream. People are going to say, ‘Yeah, yeah, go chase him, but I just want to be one and two, me and ‘Wondo’.”

Kamara, who made his MLS debut in 2006, is now at his 11th club in the league. In addition to LAFC, Chicago and Houston, he has played for Columbus Crew, San Jose Earthquakes, Sporting Kansas City, New England Revolution, Vancouver Whitecaps, Colorado Rapids, Minnesota United and CF Montréal. He is a two-time MLS All-Star, and was a US Open Cup winner with Kansas City in 2012.

This season, the Sierra Leonean has scored two goals in 13 appearances for LAFC, who are chasing their second MLS title in their seventh season in the league. MLS Cup winners in 2022, the Californians were runners-up last year, losing to Columbus Crew in the final.