By CAITLIN MURRAY
It was Toronto FC’s worst-kept secret since the blockbuster signing of Jozy Altidore last week, but the club has made it official: Sebastian Giovinco is coming to Toronto and Major League Soccer.
TFC announced on Monday that they have signed the Italian international and that he will join MLS at the conclusion of Juventus’ season in Serie A this summer.
“Today marks a very special day for Toronto FC with the addition of Sebastian Giovinco,” Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko said in a statement. “Seba is in the prime of his career and he has chosen to join Toronto FC and MLS at a time when many of the top clubs in the world were pursuing him.”
Reports out of Toronto indicate Giovinco’s five-year contract is worth as much as $7 million per year, plus additional compensation for marketing, which could make it one of the league’s priciest contracts ever. Kaka, set to join Orlando City next year, will make $7.17 million.
Giovinco, 27, is in his sixth season at Juventus, where he has a total of 20 goals with 23 assists in 130 appearances across all competitions.
Here is the rest of the latest MLS news and notes:
CRONIN TRADED TO COLORADO RAPIDS FOR ALLOCATION MONEY
The San Jose Earthquakes are sending midfielder Sam Cronin to Colorado in exchange for allocation money.
Cronin, 28, is a six-season veteran of MLS and joins the Rapids having spent the last four years with the Earthquakes, where he amassed five goals and 12 assists.
“We’re extremely excited to have Sam join our group,” Rapids coach Pablo Mastroeni said in a statement. “He’s a player that garners respect from opponents and teammates alike because of his competitive mentality and his will to win.
“Sam brings a sophisticated level of play along with leadership qualities which will raise the standard of our entire group as we continue to build for 2015 and beyond.”
Cronin started his MLS career with Toronto FC, having been selected third overall in the 2009 college draft. He saw little time in Toronto, but became a mainstay for the Earthquakes after a 2010 trade sent him to San Jose.
The Atlanta native recorded the Earthquakes most on-field minutes last year with 2,537 game minutes.
LEVANTE SIGNS FORMER RAPIDS MIDFIELDER MARI
With a stint in MLS going poorly, Jose Mari is returning to Spain.
The former Colorado Rapids midfielder passed his medical evaluation with Levante over the weekend and has been signed to an 18-month deal, Levante announced Monday.
“I had three years left on my contract,” Mari said in Spanish, referring to the Rapids. “But I wanted to come back to Europa and La Liga, which I think is the best in the world. When I was able to, I signed for Levante. Now I’m feeling really good.”
Mari has played all over Spain, starting his career at 17 years old with Union Deportiva Roteña, and joined the Rapids last year after two seasons with Zaragoza. He played 20 games for the Rapids, tallying four goals and one assist.
IMPACT ADD CONCINA AS ASSISTANT COACH
The Montreal Impact announced Monday they have named Enzo Concina as assistant coach of their first team.
Concina, who will replace assistant coach Nikolaos Kounenakis, comes from D.C. United, where he held the same role last year and helped the team finish first in the Eastern Conference.
“We are very excited to add Enzo to our coaching staff,” Impact technical director Adam Braz said in a statement. “He brings a wealth of experience with his time in Europe and in MLS with D.C. United. In regards to Nikos, his contract expired and we mutually agreed that it was the best decision for us to part ways. We would like to thank him for his services last season and we wish him the best of luck in the future.”
MILLER PASSES ON SOUNDERS, SIGNS WITH GERMAN SIDE
Tyler Miller was drafted by the Seattle Sounders, but he has decided to play in Germany instead.
Fourth-division German club SVN Zweibrücken announced Monday they had signed Miller over the weekend.
Miller, of Northwestern University, had skipped the MLS Combine, but the Sounders traded up to select him with the 33rd overall pick in last week’s draft and are now left without a third goalkeeper.
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What do you think of these notes? Do you see Giovinco having the impact to be worthy of his high salary? Who did better in the Sam Cronin deal, San Jose or Colorado?
Share your thoughts below.
I wonder how much Bradley had to do with this transfer. He was a pretty popular guy in the Italian media and, presumably, with the players too.
There are only a handful of guys in serie A making that much money and Giovinco lost his starting place this year. Big time overpay by Toronto. If he scores a ton of goals though who cares? Most likely though he’ll leave after one year due to homesickness.
Could be an overpay,….but I like the idea of getting a player who is in his prime (27). This should be the rule,…not the exception.
exactly, would you rather overpay for an older player or overpay for one in his prime…. when trying to build a league, overpaying for talented players in their prime isn’t a terrible idea
Homesickness? An Italian in Toronto? Doubt it. There are half a million people of Italian descent in Toronto. He’ll be feted from one end of the city to the next. By 100PM yesterday TFC had added 1,000 new Season ticket holders that day alone. It’s not impossible that he could feel homesick, but he’s got 7MM reasons not to and 500,000 new best friends.
C.
The Quakes will miss the 2012 Sam Cronin, but not the one from last year. In his defense, even the best d-mid would have struggled with central midfield partners that changed from week to week and were unsuited to that role and a coaching staff with zero vision of how they wanted the team to play. In the right system, he’s a quality player. Best of luck to him!
WHERES FREDDY
So can we put to rest the false notion that MLS is a frugal league with financially prudent clubs, who won’t bankrupt the league on desperate and speculative signings, and yet, somehow, the new era Cosmos will do just that to the NASL?
I wonder if Mario Balotelli could be next! No BS…dude has failed at ‘Pool, Rogers doesn’t want him anymore, his wages are too high for almost anyone but the best teams. He’s already starring in commercials in the U.S., on the fringes of the “Azzuri” and he could make a killing in the states where bad boy behavior in athletes is somewhat normal.
I would love to see NYCFC (loan back to MCFC could be attractive) or RBNY (Star acquisition of huge company in a huge market) make a run after Super Mario!
Also what other young striker has as big a profile and would make as huge a splash?
Can’t imagine any team would think he was worth the massive money and risk.
The silver lining of the Jozy signing, and I think it really is a gold lining, is that good European/South American players, like Giovinco, will see that Jozy can play on crap PL teams, not score, and come play in MLS for way more money than the Bundesliga, and League Une are willing to pay.
Add in that the US (and Canada) are much better places to be, and this might could be the tipping point where MLS starts to get players in their prime, not nearing the tail end of their careers (Lampard and Gerrard). MLS play will pick up, and even more top talent will come here.
Frankly, I would rather see high level soccer at a stadium near me than on NBC! Jozy might just be the player contract that makes it happen…
Don’t get carried away with that. MLS salary structure would have to be changed in major ways for a sudden wave of top european-based players to arrive in MLS.
Will the CBA add another DP? Will the base salary go up? We shall see.
But someone like Lukaku, who plays for a much better offenive team than Sunderland, but is not “Diego Costa’ing” it up in the PL goes to sign his next contract, it might not be in Turkey…
More than money, guys in their Prime still care about the National Team and playing in the WC and Euro. On a lesser National Team a guy in MLS would still be called up, but on a big one like Italy, MLS is the kiss of death.
His days with the Azzurri are now officially over. Until, we get past this perception in Europe, we still will struggle to sign the best.
Yup…Defoe not making England’s WC team is a big blow to MLS recruiting.
Yeah, my dream is that Dallas sonehow signs Keisuke Honda. A guy like him isn’t going to lose his spot on the Japan team from where he plays and AC Milian is going no where fast. Throw 6 million a year at him. (Double his current salary ) and its possible to get guys like him.
Maybe not this year but next? After 3 years in Milian it might be possible.
National team is important. But look at Jozy. Jurgen wanted him to stay in Europe. But he was not about to turn down $4M.
It sometimes is all about the money$$$.
Maybe if you are Lee Cattermole, and cannot quite get a look see to the national team, money will matter.
I’m a Union fan but that Giovinco signing is just flat out great for MLS.
Obafemi Martins came over at age 28.
Because no one really wanted Martins in the EPL. Giovinco is a starter, in his prime, on a Champions League team.
If that were the case he likely wouldn’t be coming.
Dude has barely kicked a ball this season.
perhaps my favorite dp of all time was blanco.He would do crazy things like a twenty yard run up to take a pk. just toy with players. set up many goals. zero drama and always fun to watch.
Let’s not get carried away. Giovinco has only started 2 league matches, and has made it off the bench only 4 times since the beginning of November. It became clear he wasn’t in Juve’s plans going forward.
That being said, he’s still in his prime and had a LOT of options still open to him in Serie A and the rest of Europe.
True, this season the coach had started to not use him as much. but with 130 apps in 6 seasons it does show he played a good amount for Juve
Giovinco wasn’t a starter with Juve and this season he only played like 5 games, he was great at Parma though.
Yeah like Freddy Adu is “25”
which, for a striker, is not exactly retiring age…
If the CBA agreement raises to 4 DP’s, Look for Toronto to drop gilberto in the summer transfer window to add another high profile DP
Is Giovinco the first legit big name in his prime to come to MLS?
Actually last year three legit guys came to MLS, One named Dempsey, another named Bradley, and A guy called Jones.
All 3 showed much better at this summers World Cup in Brazil
You know I meant Euro guys.
Depends how you rate Obafemi Martins
THIS ^
I think he is African.
Crosebud, Jones was not and is not in his prime. And Dempsey, Bradley, and Altidore don’t count in my opinion because they started in MLS and are simply returning.
To put it simply, yes.
Serie A bores me so I can honestly say I’d never heard of him. Not like Italy did anything at the World Cup.
he was hella hyped back in the days with juventus but could never cut thru. like a marchisio or destro type where “23” is young so they would never really play him so they loaned them out
had a good run with Parma for two years and came back ready to lead the line but stunk it up. he’s a very good player though just very inconsistent but definitely lots of upside
Beckham wasn’t past his prime.