Unlikely Friendships Make Adapting to a New Club Easier, Take Kipp Keller and Pavel Bucha for Example

June 24, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
FC Cincinnati News Release

When FC Cincinnati made their preseason home at a hotel in Clearwater, Florida, many of the newcomers to the roster had less than a week of meet and greet with their teammates in Cincinnati before flying south.

Kipp Keller, for example (among others), had yet to find a permanent residence in the Queen City before he and the rest of the team jetted off. He trained with the club for just over a week at the Bengals Indoor Facility as the team looked to escape the weather. He visited briefly prior to reporting to visit the training facility and stadium but then spent the next month at preseason. The same experience was essentially standard among newcomers.

When arriving in Florida, Keller had a room to himself-a luxury shared by only a few and one that he says he thought he lucked out on upon arrival and room assignment. Shortly thereafter, though, a text came saying he would be getting a roommate, and a knock on the door came shortly after that.

There stood the midfield dynamo from Czechia, Pavel Bucha, the newest star for FC Cincinnati, recently transferred from UEFA Champions League entrant Viktoria Plazen. Armed with only a duffle bag and a friendly smile, the duo would now go from having met each other in this Clearwater, Florida hotel hallway to living together for over a month.

“At first, it was nice not having a roommate. I had my alone time and was like, ‘Ah, now I’ve got this roommate. I don’t have my own space anymore,'” Keller said, learning about his roommate’s situation. “Then, sure enough, two days in, we started talking more, and we’ve been best of friends ever since.”

All through preseason, the duo’s friendship became clear. They ate meals together, drove to training together, stayed late at the gym and on the training pitch to pass the ball around or just hung out with anyone else around. For a couple of guys from Prague and St. Louis who had met just days or weeks before, the duo was as close as anyone could imagine essentially from the get-go.

The friendship has only grown since then. After each training, the pair stays on the field late to send each other field width passes until someone misses their mark, with each session getting progressively longer and longer as the duo gets more and more competitive. When the team travels, the duo are often together on the plane, at the hotel and off the field. Keller and Bucha regularly go out for dinner with their…