KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Dom Dwyer's smile never wavers, not once. He doesn't look down, or away. But it takes less than a minute for something to become clear: The hardest thing about getting Dom Dwyer to talk about becoming a celebrity is getting him to acknowledge being one.
“I don't really consider myself a celebrity,” Sporting Kansas City's English center forward – he'll be English-American before long, most likely, and we'll get back to that – told MLSsoccer.com on Wednesday during the club's preseason media event. “I'm just a footballer. I'm just enjoying myself, and being myself. Luckily, I get to play on a pretty awesome team, and we have a lot of fun, and the fan base is incredible.”
There are plenty of players on successful clubs – Sporting have won one MLS Cup and one US Open Cup since Dwyer arrived as a first-round MLS SuperDraft pick in 2012, and he also won a USL PRO title while on the second of two loan stints with Orlando City SC in 2013 – could say that and mean it. That's especially true of stars such as Dwyer, who shredded Sporting's single-season scoring records in 2014 with 22 league goals and 24 across all competitions.
But their goal celebrations don't spark trans-Atlantic controversy about “How much fun is too much fun,” as Dwyer's instantly-famous selfie did in the English media last season. And their relationships don't merit coverage by People magazine, where Dwyer and US women's national team star Sydney Leroux first revealed last fall that they were dating and then announced their low-key January wedding this past Valentine's Day.
