Altidore wants out of Toronto, with potential suitors lining up
The curtain has yet to rise on pre-season camp, but already there's drama surrounding Toronto FC.
According to ESPN's Jeff Carlisle, veteran TFC forward Jozy Altidore — the club's second all-time leading scorer — no longer wants to play in Toronto. Carlisle said Altidore wants out because his relationship with general manager Ali Curtis “has reached the breaking point.”
Fuel was added to that fire on the weekend when United States men's national team coach Gregg Berhalter told reporters Altidore would not be suiting up for Sunday's friendly against Trinidad and Tobago because of a muscle strain, while adding that Altidore has been drawing interest from multiple unidentified potential transfer suitors as the Feb. 1 deadline approaches for many European countries.
“With the transfer window looming and the game being tomorrow, it's a chance we didn't want to take with Jozy, so he will not be participating,” Berhalter said.
“Throughout the last three weeks, you wouldn't believe the amount of calls I've been getting about different players . ... Jozy is another focus of transfer speculation.”
Carlisle reported that an unknown Liga MX club had expressed interest in the American striker.
Altidore jumped into the fray on Saturday, tweeting: “Don't believe everything you read. The devil is working overtime” since the report surfaced.
Still, it would not be a surprise if the Reds tried to move Altidore, who has scored 58 goals in 123 regular season games for TFC during five seasons (and 74 in total), including the winning goal in the 2017 MLS Cup Final.
However, he also earns more than US$6 million a season and has been plagued by injuries the last three years.
On top of that, there are two young forwards on the Reds roster — Ayo Akinola and Ifunanyachi Achara — who seem ready to provide a steady stream of goals for the club at a lot less money.
Before the 2020 season, after it was announced that team captain Michael Bradley would undergo surgery to repair an ankle injury suffered two months before in the MLS Cup Final, Altidore criticized the team saying the injury was handled poorly and that it had let Bradley down.