Josh Sargent has officially made the move to MLS.
Toronto FC finalized its acquisition of Sargent from English second-tier club Norwich City, both clubs announced Friday. Sargent joins the Canadian side as a Designated Player after Toronto FC acquired his rights of first refusal (ROFR) from St. Louis CITY SC.
St. Louis will receive a total of $500,000 in General Allocation Money (GAM) from TFC ($250,000 in 2026 GAM and $250,000 in 2027 GAM). Toronto FC could also have to pay an additional $225,000 in conditional GAM if certain performance-based metrics are met.
“I am excited to join Toronto FC and start a new chapter in my life with my family in Toronto,” said Sargent. “I am grateful to everyone at the club for their belief in me and all the support throughout the process to make this move possible. From the initial conversations with Toronto FC, what excited me the most about the project was the ambition to be a competitive and winning team. I can’t wait to hit the ground running and play in front of all the fans at BMO Field.”
Sargent had been out of action with Norwich City since January 4. The 26-year-old was left out of Norwich City’s FA Cup squad that month after relaying to manager Philippe Clement that he would be unavailable for the match due to reported interest from MLS.
Sargent had previously relayed his wishes to move back to the United States, which later led Clement to demoting him to training with Norwich City’s U-21’s as punishment for missing the FA Cup win over Walsall.
The Missouri native originally joined Norwich City in 2021 from Werder Bremen and has scored 56 goals in 157 appearances for the club in all competitions. He scored eight goals and added three assists in 24 appearances this season at Carrow Road.
Toronto FC suffered a Week 1 defeat to FC Dallas and will travel to Canadian rivals Vancouver Whitecaps tonight in MLS play.
$22million for Sagent??…haha…Damn…some MLS teams are biggest idiots!
Sargent won’t bring fans to stadiums or score over 20 goals a season.
Scott e Dio,
The $22M USD amount is just the initial payment. There are $5M USD in add ons
The appearance clause is a very modest threshold and very easily attainable, so it will most likely trigger the appearance clause, making this transfer likely to be at least $24M USD.
That’s an awful lot for an MLS team to pay. For comparison, Korean Son cost LAFC $26 million and he is really world class. I imagine that Sargent will get a hefty salary, too. Has that team been bought by a Saudi multi-billionaire?
Nope same owners, mainly Ed Rodgers (Rodgers Communications) he and his group own Leafs, Raptors, and Argonauts. Toronto has always spent. Jermaine Defoe for 9 million was a lot 12 years ago. No one knows the money that changed when they basically traded Jozy for Defoe. But around the same time they spent 10 mil on Michael Bradley. Although they got Giovinco, Bernadeschi, and Insigne on free transfers their salaries were enormous at the time. Toronto hasn’t made the playoffs in five years. They’ve brought in Mihailovic, Walker Zimmerman, and now Sargent. They appear to be trying to get things back on track.
It’ll definitely be a pretty good apples-to-apples comparison between MLS and the Championship. Strikers who were good in MLS have gone on to the Championship and been pretty good there too, so one would expect it’ll translate the other way as well. It’ll be a good data point, anyhow.
Q: recent years
Sam Surridge- never double digits in Championship, 25 last year for Nashville. Was only like 23 when he came over, so likely has developed some and plays more attacking style under Bj Callaghan.
Latte Lah: back to back double digit goals for Middlesbrough but struggled with ATLU.
-I’m sure there are more but those two came to mind. Style of play is pretty different in the two leagues so that might not make it like for like comparison. Sargent should do well with Mihailovic and Salloi up front with him.
quozzel,
“It’ll definitely be a pretty good apples-to-apples comparison between MLS and the Championship. ”
No, it won’t.
Norwich are a very good Championship team level team and were very good at setting Josh up and he was good at finishing. There’s no guarantee that Toronto will use him as well.
This is just dead horse material.
As long as relegation isn’t on the MLS table that huge variable, with its associated pressure, consistently fucks up the comparison.
A team like Norwich is ultimately about survival and that means winnng just enough to either avoid relegation or gain promotion.
MLS does NOT have that kind of pressure.
MLS teams do not face that all consuming need to win. Ask Wilfried Nancy. MLS teams have to be interesting. It’s an NFL influenced product, which means the idea is to provide a family friendly attraction which generates revenue. The powers that be tend to be a lot more patient.
Son, as good as he still is, is worth a ton more to LAFC for off the field reasons than he is for on the field reasons. In MLS the revenue stream is #1, first, last and always,. The primary objective is to make money not win championships or survival as an organization.
That is an important distinction.
I don’t know why anyone bothers with these bogus false equivalencies. Success in a given league never guarantees success in another league.
In case you forgot about them, Weston, Christian, Patrick Agyemang and Aidan Morris are just the latest talented USMNT players to prove that if the situation is right ( a huge IF, notice how fucked up it was for CP at Chelsea) American players can succeed ( or fail) in any league in the world.
American players have the talent and have had it for a very long time. Maybe you never saw Clint Mathis, Tab Ramos or JOB play. I did and those guys are as talented or better than anyone the USMNT has now. There are just a lot more of them around these days, and they are getting better coaching and better opportunities.
That’s the real difficulty, finding a good situation regardless of the league. I don’t know about Aidan but Derby is absolutely tailor made for Patrick and he took full advantage.So much so that it makes you wonder if he can fit into whatever the USMNT has schemed up.
We know what he can do in the English championship. Now let’s see how that “level” translates to MLS’s standard of play.
Time to renew my Apple TV subscription lol
LETS GGOOOOO