I don't know where to put this...

...so it's going here.

Giovinco has single handedly taken TFC to the playoffs.  It just took what, 10 years for this team to do anything of meaning...and all it took is paying the most money for one player.  Good.  Good.  

This goal though...it's a fuuuuuucking peach. wow.

Also...shades of Mark Hughes. He played in Rome not 24 hours earlier. Landed in Toronto three hours before game time...come's on in the 70th and scores the winner.

Are you watching? Are you watching? Are you watching, Jermaine Defoe?

Should set up a MLS section. Giovinco has had a great season, MVP maybe. Didn't really know much about him til he came to Toronto. He is a starter for Italy or just part of the squad? You wonder if one of the Italian clubs will try to steal him off Toronto?

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Just got the call up to the Italy squad this time, after being frozen out for a while.
He has been a stand out for the entire season, simply a class above. There is no way he is not back in Europe next season.

Redcanuck wrote:

Should set up a MLS section.  Giovinco has had a great season, MVP maybe.  Didn't really know much about him til he came to Toronto.  He is a starter for Italy or just part of the squad?  You wonder if one of the Italian clubs will try to steal him off Toronto?

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Yeah there's many rumours of him going back to Europe.  He's small and really couldn't get into Juve's team.  But he's right at the peak of his powers, so you could see him getting picked up by a mid level team.  The thing is...he's on about 173K Euro per week in Toronto.  That's vastly more than any player in Serie A.  It would put him close to Benteke as Liverpool's highest player.  It's about 130K a week in Pounds.  This is before add-on bonuses that I'm sure he's triggered being MLS top scorer, assister and now dragging the team into the playoffs.

So if he's moving to Europe, there better be a team willing to pay him.  He doesn't seem to pine for Champions league play.

Isn't he the highest paid player in the MLS?  At 5'4" he might be considered too small for the big clubs to take a chance on him. How do transfers in tne MLS work, does the league get a % of the fee?

He is.

Each team gets three designated players. He's one of them. All teams have a salary cap. The league pays the players and a portion of the designated players salary. The balance (whatever is over something in the neighbourhood of 400K gets picked up by the club). Clubs with deep pockets like TFC can shell out for this. This is why TFC has about $18M tied up in three players. The entire cap, per year for every team, is $3.9M.

As for transferring him out....I suspect there is a bit of cash that goes to the league, but as far as I know he's owned by TFC. So if they sell him, they will profit directly given they were paying his huge salary. I could be wrong on this, but the system in the MLS is rather convoluted.

I had no idea he was so well paid!
That makes a transfer back to Europe less likely unless he takes a haircut.

On a separate note he is only an inch shorter than Maradona, so if he learns to use his hands he could still be world class.

It is easy to forget Maradona was only 5'5". But he was a lot more powerfully built that Giovinco. Giovinco looks like he does not weigh all that much to me. A hard tackle seems it would break him in half.

Thanks for posting that Busby. I have not been paying attention to MLS. Cracker of a goal.

I've seen plenty of hard tackles in MLS, and the lad hasn't got a bad injury record. Too much made of his weight and height, it's not ice hockey he's playing.

Height doesn't measure heart. Trademarked phrase by Our young, smallish Blue Jay pitcher, Marcus Stroman...in whom we entrust yet another massive game today.