This could be a big week for Chicago Fire forward Mike Magee.
The league’s Best XI is set to be named Tuesday and the Most Valuable Player award will be doled out on Thursday with the first-year Fire striker gaining a lot of popular sentiment despite not being in the MLS Cup playoffs the past month.
Named as a finalist for the league’s top individual honor alongside the likes of Robbie Keane and Marco Di Vaio, if Magee takes the award it would cap one of the top stories in Major League Soccer this season.
Magee told Chicago-Fire.com that just being named as a finalist alongside his former teammate Keane is special enough.
“You start talking about Robbie Keane, who’s one of the best, if not the best player I’ve ever played with,” he said about the pair’s time with the LA Galaxy.
“It’s fair to say I’ve kind of tried to shape my game a bit after him. Obviously I’ve only played forward for one year and scored a lot of goals but Robbie’s been doing that for a decade. I’ve tried to take a lot of things out of watching him train and the way he plays and put it into my game.
“When they announced the finalists, the coolest thing was seeing my name in such good company and that’s something to be proud of.”
Magee spoke to us about the stinging end to the 2013 campaign, the opportunity to wear the captain’s armband and his look ahead at the Frank Yallop era in this interview:
