TORONTO – In a way, Toronto FC has David Beckham to thank for being able to acquire Jonas Elmer.
TFC continued its roster rebuild earlier this week by signing Elmer, a Zurich-born defender who most recently played in Switzerland’s second division with FC Winterthur.
Elmer, 25, had a year remaining on his contract with Winterthur, but asked the club to release him after Toronto contacted him through his agent about a week ago with an offer.
What prompted Elmer, a regular starter for Winterthur, to leave his native Switzerland in order to play for TFC at the drop of the hat?
Elmer explained that Major League Soccer’s profile sky rocketed in Europe after Beckham signed with the LA Galaxy in 2007. Beckham made Elmer take notice of MLS for the first time, and when Toronto came calling, he jumped at the chance to join the league.
“You could see what a fantastic league it is here. It just fascinated me, and that’s why I decided to come here,” explained Elmer, who speaks English, German, French and Italian.
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Bold and impetuous career moves are nothing new for Elmer, who joined Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea as a 17-year-old in 2005. The Swiss left fullback trained sporadically with the Blues’ first team, and spent most of his two years at Stamford Bridge playing for the reserve side.
“I was 17 when I moved (to England). Of course, it was a totally different world. Everything was so big for me. It was a very good experience for me – I progressed a lot in terms of football, but also in terms of my life,” Elmer said.
He returned to Switzerland in 2007 when he signed his first professional contract FC Aarau in order to play first-team soccer, something he realized was never going to happen for him at Chelsea.
He joined fellow Swiss club FC Sion in 2010. Elmer made 23 appearances for Sion, who later sent him out on loan in 2012 with AC Bellinzona in the second division. He then moved on to FC Winterthur.
The Swiss second division season started last month and because Elmer had been playing regularly for Winterthur, he arrived in Toronto this week in match fitness, and he could make his debut in Sunday’s road game versus the New England Revolution.
Elmer, who cited former Juventus midfielder Pavel Nedved as his hero, wasn’t put off by TFC’s poor 3-10-8 record or the fact the club is poised to miss the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season. He knows full well the team is in rebuilding mode.
“I saw the (league standings), of course. It’s not the best year for the club now but I think now it’s a rebuilding process, and I am happy to be a part of it and hopefully we can progress more and more,” Elmer stated.
While a conventional reading of the situation would suggest Elmer’s arrival spells bad news for Ashtone Morgan, TFC’s regular starting left fullback, coach Ryan Nelsen stated bluntly that Morgan is the incumbent and that the Swiss will have to earn his place in the team.
“Possession is nine tenths of the law, isn’t it? At the moment (Ashtone is the starter). But nobody has a guaranteed position and everybody has to fight really hard in training to keep their spot,” Nelsen said.
“That’s what we want – we want really healthy competition and we want a nice deep squad that’s spread out and we can build a foundation from.”
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Still, there’s no denying that Morgan, a 20-year-old Toronto native, has floated in and out of the line-up this season. He’s played in 10 of TFC’s 21 league games, his poor form and defensive liabilities seeing him fall down the depth chart.
Nelsen, though, firmly insisted that the signing of Elmer is not an indictment of Morgan, and that the club acquired Elmer to add more depth.
“We can’t go through the season with one left back. … we need to have cover,” Nelsen offered.
Nelsen also said Morgan remains in his plans and that he hasn’t given any thought to loaning the Canadian defender to a lower-division team.
TFC president and general manager credited chief scout Pat Onstad for making the Elmer deal a reality.
“We’ve set up some relationships in Switzerland. We like the Swiss league. It has some similarities (to MLS). The prices (of players) aren’t out of sight. It appears to be a good place to look for talent. … Pat did the due diligence and we were very pleased with what we found on Elmer,” Payne said.
TFC’s general manager hinted that the club could mine Switzerland for future recruits: “I think we will look for certain kinds of players there, particularly (defensive) and wide players.”
