Hard-working Le Toux retires as Union member
CHESTER » Sebastien Le Toux is the first to admit that things in Philadelphia weren’t always perfect. As he signed a new contract Tuesday afternoon for a third separate stint with the Union, that fact would’ve been hard to escape had he tried.
But through it all, through three coaches and two trades out of town, Le Toux always returned to what is now his home. It’s a testament to what the Philadelphia Union means to the forward. But it’s also a reflection of the consonance between Le Toux’s journey and that of his club: Occasionally rocky, not always as wildly successful as hoped for, but still something special and poignant to be shared with a fan base, a relatability that stints at five other MLS clubs will never dim.
“My heart, it’s here,” an emotional Le Toux said Tuesday while penning a one-day contract to retire with the Union ahead of his induction as the founding member of the club’s Ring of Honor before the June 23 game with Vancouver. “It’s how I felt since the first game when I scored a hat trick at Lincoln Financial, and there was a connection. I met my wife who’s from here. Everything brings me back here, not just the soccer part but everything else.”
The adoration of the fans has been similarly constant for Le Toux, who signed his first MLS contract with the expansion Seattle Sounders on May 8, 2008, 10 years to the day of his retirement.
In that illustrious decade, Le Toux has left a stellar legacy, first and foremost as the face of a fledgling Union franchise. In 263 MLS games, the native of MontSaint-Aignan, France, scored 59 goals and 57 assists, one of only 19 players in league history to hit 50 in both scoring categoriesand 50. He finished with exactly 50 and 50 in 175 games with the Union; all three franchise records.
Le Toux made instant history by scoring a hat trick in the Union’s inaugural home game, a 3-2 win over D.C. United on April 10, 2010. Until last year, it stood as the club’s only hat trick. He scored the Union’s only goal in the 2011 MLS Cup playoffs, a twoleg loss to Houston. And Le Toux, who won the 2009 U.S. Open Cup with Seattle, is the all-time leading scorer in the modern era of that competition, helping lead the Union to the 2014 and 2015 finals on home turf.
“To follow my dreams and be a professional soccer player, it was not easy,” Le Toux said. “You will have some things denied by teams that you think you can play but you’re not good enough for some people, and I had to work hard in my youth to reach the level I have. I’m just glad I fulfilled my dreams and worked hard to do so.”
“As a lifelong Philadelphian, anytime you see someone who embraces our city as their own, you feel a certain kind of pride,” said Union manager Jim Curtin, who played against Le Toux before coaching him. “He loves this town, had an instant bond with the fans in this town, and it wasn’t just the goals he scored or the assists. It was the little things, like sticking around until this stadium was almost empty to sign every last autograph, take every last picture. He has a real loving relationship with the fans. They embraced him from Day 1 for good reason — a hat trick in your opening game always helps to ease that process. But he did more than just on the field. And again, he’s a good person, first and foremost.”
In many ways, the visceral pain of two separations from the fan base so endeared to him strengthened Le Toux’s bond, serving him well as ambassador for the club.
Le Toux was an All-Star in 2010 and led the team to the playoffs in 2011, but was traded before the 2012 season in a dispute over a new contract with manager Peter Nowak. Vancouver dealt Le Toux to the New York Red Bulls — around the time Nowak was fired by the Union for conduct that spawned several lawsuits — and Le Toux returned to Philly in 2013.
“When I was here a few times before, I kind of wanted to be here forever,” Le Toux said. “I had the team in my heart. So when they traded me the first time, it was hard because it didn’t happen the right way with Peter and I was not expecting this at all. He really cut me for nothing with what they were saying about doing for me and re-signing to another contract. It was hard.”
While the first deal could be written off to Nowak’s nuttiness, the second was less easily explained. The Union were in a playoff position in August 2016 and on the verge of landing Alejandro Bedoya. But instead of being a part of a run toward the playoffs, Le Toux became a cap casualty, shipped to Denver. While Le Toux wasn’t always the most succinct of finishers, his impact on the team’s chemistry was evident as the Union stumbled into the finish of that season and a quick playoff ouster. In the last 20 games that Le Toux played in 2016, the Union won eight times. In 54 games since, as Le Toux drifted from Denver to a season in DC, the Union have won just 16 of 54.
Yet Le Toux “made my peace” with that decision, he says, and the reception he received indicates it’s mutual, and was evident from the former teammates that sat in on his presser between training and a bus ride to the airport ahead of Wednesday’s game in Columbus.
Settled in the Philly area with his wife, Kendall, Le Toux will join the club’s front office in an undisclosed role while offering private coaching to keep his passion for the game burning. He’s also working with Kendall’s home staging business while doing promotional work for a pharmaceutical company.
That he is being feted by the club accentuates the positives of his tenure as the greatest player in Union history. That’s the way Le Toux already views it in his heart.
“When I think about the Union, I only think about the great moments I had,” Le Toux said. “Even if the first season was very hard with the results, it was great for me, not just on the field with the goals and the fact that I made the All-Star Game, it was just great to come here and come to this new city and new fan base, this new passion about sports here and a different mentality than what I was used to in Seattle. It was just great memories. …
“You look at your career, but you look too at all the lives you met, the people you met, the players you met and it’s always nice to look back and see, yeah, this was another great memory, not just the soccer part but the things around them.”