Kei Kamara’s popularity during Norwich City loan no shock to Sporting Kansas City team-mate Dom Dwyer

Dom Dwyer in action for Orlando City during his loan spell. Picture: Jon Lorentz/Orlando City SC (Image: Archant)

The former Canaries' loan frontman became a big hit for his enthusiastic approach to life during his three-and-a-bit month stay in Norfolk earlier this year. A film about the striker's life was screened in the city while supporter Andy Palmer even penned a song called 'Heart Shaped Hands' – in tribute to Kamara's popular goal celebration and children's charity in Africa.

Those scenes of hero worship are replicated in America where the 28-year-old is already adored by fans of Sporting Kansas City. And after welcoming Dwyer to the club with open arms in early 2012, the English hitman understands why the former City loanee has become such a popular figure on both sides of the Atlantic.

'He's a great guy. I'm very close to Kei. When I first arrived at Kansas he took me under his wing,' said the Sporting KC player, currently on loan himself at Orlando City.

'He even took me for lunch on my first day, that's the kind of guy he is. A great team-mate. He looked after me well and gave me good advice. We were close on and off the pitch and we'd always been round each other's houses, where I'd usually be beating him at FIFA on the Playstation.

'It was very cool that Norwich were interested in him and when they were he was asking me questions about what they're all about and what the city was like. It was also nice to see that a lot of Norwich fans were asking me about Kei before he went there.

'I text him to ask how it was going when he was at Norwich and he said 'it was good'. I'm sure he would have liked to have scored a few more goals than he did but I think he was unlucky to be fair. He's a great player and although it didn't quite work out for him at Norwich I'd be surprised if Kansas managed to hang onto him.'

The Sierra Leone international was described as a 'breath of fresh air' at Carrow Road by his ex-City team-mate Russell Martin. But he only managed to score one Premier League goal during 11 appearances, four of which came from the substitutes' bench.

His solitary strike came in a 2-1 win against Everton before City declined the option of making the Major League Soccer star's brief stint in England a permanent one.

'I was massively jealous, while being happy, of Kei playing in the Premier League,' admitted Dwyer, who spent most of his youth growing up in King's Lynn.

'It's one of the reasons why I was so frustrated at not being involved for Kansas last year. If you are not playing, nobody gets the chance to see you and you're not even heard about. It doesn't matter what level you're playing, you just need to be playing.'

Since returning to KC on May 5, Kamara has scored twice in six appearances – five of which have come from the bench.

- Click on the related link on the right-hand side of this page to read the full feature on Dom Dwyer.