TORONTO – When it comes to the way it makes player announcements, Toronto FC appears to have learned its lesson.
Hopefully, this was an indication of a philosophical shift at TFC—caring about the actual soccer first, marketing second, and global branding a distant third.
A year after Jermain Defoe was introduced with great fanfare—infamously trumpeted by the club as a “Bloody Big Deal”—TFC officially unveiled American forward Jozy Altidore as its newest designated player on Friday at Air Canada Centre, showing great restraint in the process.
Indeed, Altidore’s introduction was far more modest and subdued compared to the spectacle made for Defoe (and Michael Bradley) by the team at Real Sports Bar and Grill last January. This time around there was a lot less hoopla and, crucially, no double-decker bus parked outside with the words “Bloody Big Deal” emblazoned on the side.
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GM Tim Bezbatchenko declined to get into the details of the swap completed earlier this week that sent Defoe to English Premier League club Sunderland in exchange Altidore. Was there a transfer fee involved? Did TFC make any money on this deal?
Bezbatchenko wasn’t saying, but a source within MLSE told Sportsnet that this was a straight one-for-one trade with no transfer fee paid, and that Michael Bradley restructured his current contract in order to help TFC sign Altidore.
So, that’s what we know. Oh, and we also know that Defoe is gone, and that he’ll likely never return to these parts again—and for a lot of TFC fans, even that would be too soon.
And now Toronto FC moves forward with Altidore, the American who returns to Major League Soccer looking to repair his somewhat damaged reputation and help the Reds end their eight-year playoff drought.
If you’re looking for even the slightest hint of progress and maturity with this troubled franchise, you may be comforted to know that Friday’s press event was untainted by some ill-conceived, ridiculously over-the-top marketing plan that raised expectations to a comical level. The words “Bloody Big Deal” were not uttered. There were no not-so-subtle hints that Altidore would be the team’s saviour (unlike with Defoe a year ago). And there was no pandering to the crowd by Tim Leiweke to the crowd, asking long-suffering fans in attendance, “Why can’t we be great?”
There was none of that. Friday was about soccer, the game on the pitch. And while it’s difficult to take management’s word for it on face value—we’ve all been burned too many times in the past—there is a growing sense that Toronto FC learned its lesson from the Defoe debacle and is focused on what really matters.
“For me, it’s about winning. We can talk about our signings, we’re telling you what our vision is, we’re telling you what we’re trying to do on the pitch, our style of play. But in the end, we need to give back to the fans a winning team,” Bezbatchenko said.
“This for us, it’s big for our club. It’s big for our team. People will see that. It’s meaningful but in the end it’s about winning.”
On the surface, Toronto appears to have lost this “one-for-one” trade with Sunderland. The Black Cats received a veteran striker in Defoe who’s a proven goal-scorer in the Premier League. Toronto gets Altidore, who lit up the Dutch league with AZ Alkmaar (51 goals in 93 games) but who found the net just once in 42 Premier League appearances since joining Sunderland in 2013.
What’s the upside for TFC? They were able to get rid of a player in Defoe who wasn’t committed to the Toronto cause. At 25, Altidore has a bigger upside in the long-term than the 32-year-old Defoe. He’s also hungry to prove his many doubters wrong, including those Sunderland supporters who were celebrating his departure and local critics who think he’s not worth his new big-money contract.
Most of all, Defoe didn’t want to be here. Altidore does. That counts for a lot.
Is this a bit of gamble for TFC? Absolutely it is. There’s no guarantee Altidore is going to rediscover the form he showed in the Netherlands. Toronto fans would no doubt be feeling a whole lot better right now had Bezbatchenko signed a more proven goal-scorer than Altidore.
But the decision to bring in Altidore, unlike with Defoe, was driven entirely by soccer motives, not some marketing scheme and obsession with building a global brand. That’s a big step in the right direction by this club.
Now Toronto FC has to figure out how to put it altogether on the pitch. Can Altidore help them do that? We’ll soon find out.
John Molinaro is Sportsnet’s chief soccer reporter. Follow him on Twitter