Jermain Defoe Arrives in Toronto

What does Jermaine Defoe’s arrival at Toronto FC mean for the club, and for Major League Soccer in general? Ricky Rothstein considers the possibilities.

Jermain Defoe is different to most other European players who have crossed the Atlantic to play professional soccer in America. The North American Soccer League of the 1970s had superstars with every club and a galaxy of them at the Cosmos, but all those guys were on one final round-up before riding off into the sunset with an extra sack of greenbacks across the saddle.

The stars who have arrived in MLS in recent years – Robbie Keane, Thierry Henry and, most famously, David Beckham – were also pretty much playing out the string. Although at 31 he’s the same age as those three, Jermain Defoe is still in his prime. Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood fully expects Defoe to play for England in the World Cup this summer and, because of Defoe’s dedicated and professional attitude towards training, he is a player around whom a franchise can be built.

Defoe scores goals, and goals are soccer’s single most important commodity. Defoe isn’t a big man at five foot seven but he has the positional awareness, the burst from a standing start and the poacher’s instinct that makes him ideal at what he does. While Defoe is on the pitch Toronto will always have a chance to score, even when things aren’t going their way.

If Defoe’s so great, why are Tottenham Hotspur selling him? Simple economics. Tottenham were suddenly flush with cash after they traded Gareth Bale to Real Madrid of Spain in the summer for £80 million, give or take.

Spurs spent £26 million of that signing Roberto Soldano from Valencia. Although Soldano hasn’t quite set North London alight, he’s the younger man and, after dropping the twenty-six million, Spurs weren’t about to just write it off.

The MLS season starts again on March 15, and the ante-post betting sees the LA Galaxy slightly ahead in the betting of the New York Red Bulls and current champions, Sporting Kansas City. Toronto is in the middle of the pack, the sort of dangerous team who could make a burst and get hot for the playoffs.

Because not only have Toronto now got a proven international goalscorer, they also have another reason for other big European players to cross the ocean. Jermain Defoe’s presence in Toronto is an endorsement of Major League Soccer itself, and it’s continuing evolution on its way to taking its place among the greats of world soccer.