Early Friday Toronto FC announced that contract options on three players were not being picked up for 2011 and beyond. The three are Fuad Ibrahim, Nick Garcia and Amadou Sanyang. Of those three players only Garcia meets the criteria to be able to participate in the upcoming Major League Soccer Re-Entry Draft that takes place on December 8th. Here is the release from TFC: http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2010/12/tfc-decides-three

So as of today there are seventeen players that are currently on the books with TFC. Of those seventeen players I can confirm that only seven of them are under contract for 2011 (and one of them is Captain Dwayne De Rosario – angling by all accounts for a renegotiated contract). Four players are definitely out of contract and the remaining six  I am frankly unsure of as MLS  treats things like contract terms and lengths of deals very much like a state secret.

With the return of the reserve league in 2011 MLS has now decided that clubs need to carry 30 players starting next season. That means that assuming TFC keeps everybody it has today they need to being in thirteen newcomers between now and March. And with training camp starting in about seven weeks that means there will likely be a flurry of activity before the end of 2010. And with the release/trading of nine players over the past weeks (including the three today) and with some older contracts coming off the books that gives the front office somewhere around $1.4 – $1.6 million of cap/allocation space to use to reload for next year.

Earl Cochrane must be a busy busy man eh?

So if you are trying to keep track at home here are the players officially still with Toronto FC

Goalkeepers

• Stefan Frei
• Jon Conway
• Milos Kocic

Defenders

• Nana Attakora
• Adrian Cann
• Emmanuel Gomez
• Ty Harden
• Doneil Henry

Midfielders

• Julian de Guzman
• Dwayne De Rosario
• Dan Gargan
• Nick LaBrocca
• Nicholas Lindsay
• Jacob Peterson
• Nathan Sturgis

Strikers

• Chad Barrett
• Maicon Santos

I called this post today “Addition By Subtraction” for a reason. I think it is fair to say that the three players whose options were not picked up Friday were not going to be part of the plans long term for Toronto FC. Putting aside that the three of them had contracts in 2010 that added up to a little more than $378,000, if I was the GM and I had the choice to either bring these guys back or have the cap/allocation space and an additional International roster slot I would definitely let them go.

Nick Garcia

There was no way he was ever coming back to Toronto for anything near what he earned on 2010 ($198,000) that was partially paid by TFC and San Jose. I stated previously I would be glad to entertain having him back as a bench player if he was willing to play for about a third of what he earned last season. I guess Garcia feels that he might have a better chance of getting more money from another club through this limited type of free agency MLS has instituted.  And you never know, he may indeed be back if there are no takers in the re-entry draft. And of course for many Toronto fans Garcia harkens back to some of the worst moments of the Mo Johnston era… a “buddy” of Mo on the downside of his career and on huge money comes to town and underperforms on the field. Most will not be sad to see him go.

Fuad Ibrahim

Ibby was never able to earn fully either the dollars given to him ($133,000 last season if you can believe it!) nor earn anything more than an occasional foray onto the field in his time here. With TFC no longer able to keep his salary off the cap with his Generation Adidas eligibility ending this again was a no brainer. I think Ibby would be well served  to look into going to the USL/NASL and finding a place where he can play and hopefully resurrect his career. He has potential but as of today he is not a MLS player

Amadou Sanyang

Young, raw and athletic, with an emphasis on the raw. Sanyang was relatively cheap at just a bit over $45,000 in salary. This move I think is starting to speak to the style of play Toronto FC wants to play next season. And that is  likely a possession style of soccer with the ball on the carpet. That requires skilled players to fulfill and Sanyang, although athletic, was probably judged not skilled enough to fill a precious international roster spot for 2011.

Later Friday we will also find out which veteran MLS players are available in the first round of the Re-Entry Draft and whether any of these players are of interest to our team. I will try and keep you all posted.

Your comments are always welcome and appreciated.