“To come here and to have a reception like that is unbelievable. Such a great feeling, I feel at home already,” Jermain Defoe, January 13, 2014.
Exactly one year to the day Jermain Defoe claimed to be home, the Toronto FC star’s doomed-to-fail-from-the-start tenure in Major League Soccer came to an end, as he was sold to Sunderland after “suffering” through a summer of discontent.
Really, we all should have known better. A “Bloody Big Deal?” No, a bloody big mistake.
Instead of buying that obvious line of bull that Defoe fed us at his official unveiling as a Toronto FC player a year ago (when he uttered the above quote), we should have questioned his motives, seen through the hype and asked ourselves and Toronto FC—and him—one question: Is this really a good fit?
More viewpoints on Defoe: Sportsnet’s James Sharman || BBC 5 Live’s Mark Pougatch || Sunderland Echo reporter Chris Young
Turns out it wasn’t. And the thing is it was staring us all in the face at the time. The itinerant nature of Defoe’s career up to that point—being twice loaned out and jumping between six teams during a 15-year period in his native England—suggested that he wasn’t in it for the long haul. Toronto was just another stopover, never a place where he was going to plant roots.
He came for the money, which is fine. There’s nothing wrong with an athlete getting paid handsomely for their efforts. If TFC was willing to back up the Brinks truck to his front door and dump a load of cash at his feet, who are we to begrudge him that?
But he didn’t come to Toronto with the best intentions. Yes, he scored when he was healthy, which was infrequent. What betrayed his (sometimes) stellar form on the pitch was the unmistakable fact that there was no genuine interest on his part in being an ambassador for MLS, in adapting to the league, and in trying to help a struggling franchise turn things around on the pitch.
He was in it completely for himself, guided (misguided, actually) by the idea that a playing stint in Canada would improve his chances of earning a spot on England’s World Cup roster last summer. That’s not to say that coming to MLS was the death knell of his World Cup hopes—it was just such a long shot for him to be on the plane to Brazil in the first place. A move to Toronto wasn’t going to improve his chances in any substantive way.
Defoe was the antithesis of Michael Bradley, who was brought in by TFC at the same time and with the same whirlwind of hype. But Bradley came here knowing the league, and with an eye firmly focused on the long-term, and with every intention of digging and doing the dirty work. Bradley never considered MLS beneath his immense talents. The same can’t be said of Defoe.
Defoe was here, but he was never really here. He was never committed, never had his heart in it. He only thought about himself. He was a gun for hire. A carpetbagger. Nothing more.
It started out well. When Defoe scored a brace in his MLS debut, an improbable 2-1 win away to Seattle, and bagged eight goals in his first nine games, it appeared as though the Englishman was going to tear up the league.
However, not so coincidentally, it was following his omission from England’s World Cup squad that the goals dried up, that he missed games through injury (some say he was malingering, and it didn’t help his cause when he flew back to England to be treated) and that he was nearly sold to Queens Park Rangers for a TFC club record $11 million transfer fee in August.
After Toronto turned down QPR’s offer, questions arose about Defoe’s commitment, about his future and whether or not he really wanted to be here. He never answered any of those questions to anybody’s satisfaction, and publically hit back at fans and media, saying he’s misunderstood and had been treated unfairly.
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“It was frustrating when I was home seeing certain things—people questioning if [I was] really injured. I remember [someone] wrote an article saying I’m at home nursing a minor injury. … It’s frustrating when people doubt you, when you’re dealing with a real injury and especially for someone like me who loves playing football,” Defoe told reporters in September.
It’s interesting to note that he offered the above statement, which came across as feigned rather than genuine hurt feelings, during one of the rare times he deigned to speak to local journalists at practice. More times than not whenever beat reporters requested to speak to him after training, we were rebuffed—unlike fellow designated player Michael Bradley who could not have been more accommodating with the media.
And instead of being honest and just coming out and saying, “look, I think I made a mistake in coming here,” he was always evasive and never gave a definitive answer whenever he was directly asked about whether he expected to be back in Toronto next season.
He couldn’t get out of town quick enough and head back to England. It was the last thing he would admit to, though.
“At the end of the day, I don’t know what the future holds,” Defoe said.
He knew; deep down, we all knew.
John Molinaro is Sportsnet’s chief soccer reporter. Follow him on Twitter