Eric Miller grew up a wide-eyed, soccer-loving kid in Woodbury, but as an MLS pro, he sometimes felt more like a mercenary.

After a collegiate career at Creighton, he was a high draft pick for the Montreal Impact in 2014 and found out the nature of the business when he was traded to the Colorado Rapids two years later. When he was shipped off again this May 1 in a deadline-day trade to Minnesota United, the homecoming had him nostalgic for his idealistic days as a firsthand witness to some of the biggest flash points in Minnesota’s recent soccer history.

In 2004, he was an 11-year-old ball boy when the A-League’s Minnesota Thunder went toe-to-toe against Major League Soccer’s San Jose Earthquakes and legend Landon Donovan in the U.S. Open Cup at St. Paul Central High School.

“That one was huge for me,” Miller told the Pioneer Press. “I remember my dad (Mike) talking about how fast Landon Donovan was. … It was amazing.”

As he prepared to play his third game for the Loons on Sunday in their temporary home of TCF Bank Stadium, Miller, 25, marveled at how the custom 19,400-seat, $250 million Allianz Field is being built for next season, and how it will sit just a few blocks from where he chased down balls for Donovan and Co.

The improvement Miller sees in Minnesota’s soccer landscape runs parallel to his own outlook on the field. Last season, Miller won the Rapids’ defender of the year award, but an offseason coaching change and minor injuries in preseason had him buried on the bench for the Rapids’ first nine games this season.

“It’s sort of hard because I think that fans want players to breathe for the club and die for the club and all that stuff, and then you see guys just get traded like that and it’s tough for the players to have loyalty to the clubs, if they don’t have it back to them,” Miller said. “But for me to come home, it’s amazing, being able to grow up here, especially because (MLS) didn’t exist when I was a kid.

“It wasn’t like I grew up watching an MLS team. We had the Stars, the Thunder — and they almost folded. But to be able to come back here in the first division is really, really special.”

When Minnesota joined MLS last season, Miller said the idea of playing for the Loons sat in the back of his mind. “When I was (in Colorado), I tried to downplay it a little bit,” he said. “… I was just waiting for the right time, and then it all came a lot sooner than I thought.”

Miller’s Minnesota soccer history, which was shared in a Twitter post after the trade was announced, includes him as a 14-year-old standing at the Metrodome eagerly waiting to watch superstar David Beckham and other headliners walk out before a 2007 exhibition match against the Thunder. In 2011, at age 17, he made short trips to Blaine to watch the Stars en route to their North American Soccer League championship. That club was under league ownership and embraced the supporters’ chant as “the team that nobody wanted.”

Miller’s connections to the Stars and to the current Loons run even deeper.

The Stars had defender Brian Kallman, a Woodbury native and the older brother of Miller’s then-girlfriend, Kassey Kallman. The Loons now have defender Brent Kallman, another older brother to Miller’s now-fiancee.

Two years older, Brent got his driver’s license before Eric and would pick him up at Woodbury’s junior high school and take him to their varsity practices. Brent has recalled a story about how he was surprised that Miller came over to his home unannounced one day — to see Kassey.

There was no protective-older-brother posturing at the time, and Brent, who would team up with Eric at Creighton, will be a groomsman in Eric and Kassey’s wedding on New Year’s Eve in St. Paul’s Lowertown neighborhood.

“He really excited to be his teammate again,” Kassey said. “… (Brent) is someone that he just feels very close to.”

Kassey also knows the feeling of being a hired gun in an unfamiliar city. After a standout soccer career at Florida State, she was a defender in the National Women’s Soccer League and played a then-record 4,019 consecutive minutes, starting in 2014 with FC Kansas City, the Boston Breakers and, finally, the Washington Spirit last season. Related Articles Loons’ Adrian Heath, Kei Kamara believe they can strike simpatico partnership

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Kassey announced in February that she would stop playing and moved to Denver to be with Eric full time for the first time in seven years. She was then overjoyed to come back home and doesn’t rule out a return to the field if Minnesota adds an NWSL team in the future — something United’s ownership is considering.

But experience has taught Kassey and Eric that this homecoming might not be a happily-ever-after scenario. Miller is in the last year of his contract, and another move could be on the horizon.

In the meantime, they are living in the basement of the family home of Kallman parents Rick and Laura. Brent said other Loons teammates often give him grief about living with his soon-to-be in-laws. That’s OK, though.

Miller’s at home.