The flood of off-season changes at Toronto FC and Montreal Impact continue.
On Tuesday afternoon, TFC traded midfielder Dominic Oduro to the Impact in exchange for an undisclosed amount of allocation money.
Oduro practised with TFC on Monday as the club officially opened its pre-season training camp, and he joked with local reporters in the ensuing media scrums. Just over 24 hours later he was traded, and set to join the seventh MLS club of his playing career.
It appears as though Toronto made the trade because it has another move planned.
“This deal provided an opportunity to acquire financial assets that will allow us to continue to strengthen our squad,” TFC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said in a news release.
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Oduro, 29, had two goals and five assists in 24 league appearances for TFC since joining the Reds last June in a trade with the Columbus Crew.
In total, Oduro has played in over 250 MLS games (regular season and playoffs) since making his league debut in 2006 with FC Dallas. A native of Ghana, Oduro also played for the New York Red Bulls, Houston Dynamo and Chicago Fire.
Oduro has recorded 48 goals and 26 assists in nine MLS seasons.
“This move allows us to add quality depth to our striker position, as we identified in our plan,” Impact technical director Adam Braz said in a news release.
“Dominic is an experienced player who has scored in our league and adds a different profile to our attacking options.”
The addition of Oduro gives Montreal more depth, and greater speed on the flanks. His departure from Toronto leaves the Reds a little thin on the wings, somewhere they weren’t particularly deep to begin with ahead of the 2015 MLS campaign.
With the speedy Ghanaian gone and little more cap space at his disposal, Bezbatchenko will be under pressure to add depth at the winger position ahead of the Reds’ season opener on March 7, away to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Although he didn’t live up to expectations at TFC, Oduro was popular with teammates and fans due to his carefree demeanor and trademark mohawk, with shaved sides and a variety of colours on top—usually the colours of Ghana’s flag.
This has been a busy week for Toronto FC and Montreal Impact, with both sides making major moves.
On Monday, Toronto signed France-born Damien Perquis and acquired fellow centre-back Eriq Zavaleta from the Seattle Sounders in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.
Earlier on Tuesday, Montreal pulled off a major trade in sending Brazilian midfielder Felipe to the New York Red Bulls in exchange for left fullback Ambroise Oyongo and midfielder Eric Alexander.
The Impact also received allocation money and an international player spot for the 2015 season while the Red Bulls got the first spot in the MLS allocation ranking.
