Audley Boyd, Assistant Sport Editor
JAMAICAN MIDFIELDER Khari Stephenson is busy seeking opportunities to restart his MLS playing career.
Stephenson, who joined Kansas City Wizards in 2004 via a trade with Chicago Fire, was reported to have been released by the Wizards and out of contract last week.
However, the 24-year-old midfielder's father, Stewart Stephenson, told The Gleaner his son opted for a release from the Wizards, is not out of contract and is looking to join another club now.
"Khari is contracted to the MLS. He's in the second year of a four-year contract with the MLS, which is renewable in December. He's getting his full salary to the end of the season," stated Stephenson, who is also an attorney-at-law.
WAITING FOR TRY-OUT
In the meantime, Khari is attending to the urgent business of playing for a club.
"He has been released into a player pool and can be picked up by any team. He has to wait to see if any club will pick him up. Ideally he'd like to be picked up before the end of the season," Stephenson said.
"He did a try out with LA Galaxy, who had come down on Saturday to play the Wizards," said his father, who is also president of the Kingston and St. Andrew Football Association (KSAFA).
"Having completed that try-out, he's now awaiting word from his agent to travel to Real Salt Lake this week to try out for them and see if he can make their roster."
The national player broke into the Wizards starting team at the end of last season, scoring his first goal in the return leg of the Western Conference semi-finals against San Jose Earthquakes. His team won that match 3-0 to emerge 3-2 aggregate winners.
The senior Stephenson also explained that Khari was offered a salary cut to facilitate Kansas City Wizards' new Finnish signing Antti Sumiala, but decided against it because his playing time had been drastically reduced and he was being used to fill unaccustomed roles such as right wing back.
"The club has been very, very good to Khari over the two years but it didn't seem to him, at this point, that he was a part of their agenda going forward," Stephenson said.
Commenting on his option to move, he continued: "It's a risk which he (Khari) took looking at his own interest as a soccer player going forward ... since it appeared that this club didn't have a long-term vision for him.
"In the same time he would be uncertain if he was going to play, and if so in an unaccustomed role. He's playing at right back at times and only for a few minutes. He's not a defender. He's comfortable where he's played all his life and got success - as a midfielder or forward."
From his youthful days, the big midfielder, who stands at 6' 2", has either played at midfield or forward and graduated into those roles into the national set-up from the junior teams to the senior squad where he now commands a starting position at central midfield.
He had an outstanding series in the just concluded CONCACAF Gold Cup, at which Jamaica made it to the quarter-finals.
DISAGREEMENTS
Despite his good showing, his father points out that it may have led to one of those now infamous club versus country rows as Khari's reduction in playing time coincided with his return from the competition.
"After the Gold Cup, he got these stints on and off ... and in positions that were inconsistent and unaccustomed. In the last situation here, he was called by the JFF and asked to be released for the Australia match and the club, despite hardly playing him, refused," the elder Stephenson stated.
In the report carried in The Gleaner last Friday about his release from the Wizards, the MLS team's coach, Bob Gansler, said he was released for other reasons.
"I think he's an immensely blessed player. But his lack of consistency, both on the practice field and in games, is what he needs to address."
Gansler added: "He had some brilliant moments and he had a few this year. But there have been long stretches in between where we were just waiting and hoping, and it hasn't happened.
"He's talented, but he has to find a place where he can bring all of that to fruition. He hasn't done it here, not because he hasn't worked, and it's not because he hasn't wanted to."
