CARSON, Calif. – That “life conversation” Robbie Rogers wants to have with Jurgen Klinsmann? Looks like it's on.
The US national team coach, asked Thursday afternoon about Rogers' comments about their relationship during Tuesday's MLS Media Day, said he'd be happy to sit down and talk with the LA Galaxy's left back.
Rogers, who last played for the national team in 2011, said that he had sent Klinsmann a message when he came out as gay and announced what would be a brief retirement in February 2013 but that the German legend had never responded.
Rogers has known Klinsmann since he was 12 and said the US coach has done much to help him during his career.
“I don't know how he feels about me as a soccer player. I don't know how he feels about the whole situation, but I'm sure down the road I'll speak with him,” Rogers said. “… I think him and I need to have that conversation – a life conversation, if he's interested. I think that's more important to me than playing with the national team.”
Klinsmann said he's up for that.
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“Oh, definitely. We can have that anytime. No problem at all,” Klinsmann said Thursday. “He [sent] me a note, and I absolutely respect that. But I think this is his privacy. I thought there was no need to respond.
“I can give him a call, and we can have a nice cup of coffee, no problem at all.”
Rogers wasn't invited into the US national team's January camp, but Klinsmann last week said he would have included the Galaxy veteran, who reenergized his career with a move last season to left back, had he not devoted a good deal of his roster to potential Olympic players.
