It’s not a lot of fun being a soccer writer when the local FC hands out its Most Valuable Player award – and gets it so glaringly wrong.
You don’t want to run down the guy who won the thing. He had a great season, after all, and made matters significantly better for the home eleven.
Adrian Cann was not the MVP of Toronto FC in 2010. But he won.
Forgive a man who covers this team for ever being cynical, but his selection yesterday carries some odd implications.
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It never occurred to me until just now that singling out one player as your most valuable could have significant money implications in a salary-cap soccer league.
Dwayne de Rosario, for example. By far TFC’s most creative and dangerous player, DeRo ripped home 15 goals on a side that usually couldn’t score honey in a beehive. But he also – famously – made that hugely public cheque-writing motion after scoring a goal late in the season.
DeRo wants to be a Designated Player, and hasn’t been exactly thrilled with his $375,000 annual stipend since the seven-figure arrival of Julian de Guzman just over a year ago.
There’s no shortage of critics who feel de Rosario isn’t DP material. Whether to keep him, DP him or just hold him to his present contract is one of the biggest decisions facing whomever ultimately fills the smoking ruins of Mo Johnston’s former chair.
Just speculating, here, but why complicate that mess by naming DeRo the team’s MVP? If Toronto decides to keep him, that could cost some serious buckwash.
On the other hand, there’s goaltender Stefan Frei.
The young Swiss air-bending goaltender is my personal choice for MVP, and has been in an intriguing contract position. Frei was a member of MLS’s elite “Generation Adidas,” a group of gifted youngsters who don’t count against the salary cap. Many an eyebrow was raised when the 24-year-old Frei had his GA status extended last year, despite being – well – 24!
That all ended this week, and Frei is now an $80,000 cap hit who clearly deserves a big raise. How big, though, is clearly an issue for the not-yet-named GM. There’s also the point that Frei may be generating transfer interest from Europe. “Team MVP” isn’t likely to mean much to Euro scouts sniffing around a bad team in the provinces. But a low contract? Well, every pfennig helps!
As for Adrian Cann:
Just a great season! Physical height – bordering on dominant – guts, smarts, and enough hustle to get dangerously upfield on TFC set-pieces and free kicks.
He helped heal a gaping chasm in the middle of the TFC defence – but he didn’t do it alone. Cann and fellow Canadian halfback Nana Attakora were joined at the hip all season. To give the MVP to one of them, excluding the other, seems odd.
But here’s what else you need to know. Cann just turned 30, far from young in soccer terms. His salary for his breakthrough season was a scant $60,000. He’s due for a huge pay raise anyway. Naming him MVP just confirms that. TFC could double – even triple – his pay packet, without significantly burdening themselves under the salary cap.
And frankly, he deserves every penny he can get. I loved watching this guy play soccer this summer.
Now, if Toronto FC had a general manager in place, I don’t think Cann wins the award. If salary cap is an issue here at all, the GM takes all that into account before the hardware gets handed out.
I think what really happened here is that the present Toronto braintrust knew that both de Rosario and Frei will be interesting off-season negotiations, and didn’t want to pin a nice, shiny – possibly expensive – ribbon on either of them.
Onward!