TFC’s Alejandro Pozuelo second player in team history to win MLS MVP award,
Spaniard has created high expectations for the role of designated player
Alejandro Pozuelo had big shoes to fill when he arrived at Toronto FC as the organization’s third designated player in March 2019.
Sebastian Giovinco, Major League Soccer’s most valuable player in 2015 and Toronto’s for as long as he was with the club, had parted ways with the Reds in late January that year. The two players weren’t exactly cut from the same cloth — Pozuelo was as much a replacement for former Reds midfielder Victor Vazquez’s playmaking as he was for Giovinco’s goal-scoring — but the incoming Spaniard couldn’t avoid being asked whether he felt pressure to live up to the standard set by the outgoing Italian.
“I know before me … I came to replace Giovinco and everybody spoke about this,” Pozuelo recalled.
On Monday, Pozuelo, 29, met Giovinco’s standard by becoming the second player in TFC history to win the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award. His case for the honour was almost airtight. Pozuelo led the league in combined goals and assists, chances created and game-winning goals. He was the first Toronto player to start every regular-season match. The Reds went 9-1-4 when Pozuelo scored or assisted in 2020.
Giovinco earned the MVP award by a wide margin five years ago, with 87 per cent of votes cast by MLS clubs, 94 per cent of media ballots and 77 per cent of players votes. Pozuelo’s win wasn’t quite as convincing — he earned 35 per cent of total votes — but he was competing in a field of five players, compare to the field of three when Giovinco won.
Together, Giovinco and Pozuelo headline a recent trend at Toronto: the ability to acquire league-changing designated players. TFC is the only club to boast multiple MVPs since 2010. Reds brass has been willing to spend on its top three players since signing longtime captain Michael Bradley and Jermaine Defoe in 2014, with Pozuelo, Jozy Altidore and Pablo Piatti filling those coveted spots this past season.
But there’s a spot open after the Reds declined Piatti’s option last week, and Pozuelo’s award serves as a reminder to Toronto’s front office that they have a big task ahead of them if they want to meet their own high threshold.
Piatti, 31, was on a one-year contract plus a club option after signing with Toronto last February, and he didn’t exactly have the season the Reds might have imagined for him. He struggled with injury at times, playing in just 17 games, and contributed only four goals and four assists.
Piatti showed flashes of brilliance and had a solid partnership with Pozuelo, and that could be enough to return to Toronto on a lesser deal, but the Reds need more, particularly when it comes to scoring goals. Pozuelo and youngster Ayo Akinola converted nine each in 2020 to top Toronto’s scoresheet, but there was too big a gap to Piatti and wingback Richie Laryea, next at four apiece.
The initial plan is to get another attacking player that can fill Piatti’s spot, general manager Ali Curtis said last week.
“It’s not just about one particular player but it’s about the relationships of all the players on the field in different moments during a match and during the course of a season,” he said.
The list of traits Toronto is looking for in a new designated player goes beyond scoring goals at a “very high clip.” The Reds also want someone who can create those relationships, can contribute in “a lot of different ways,” and has great character and personality off the field.
Acquiring a player the calibre of Pozuelo or Giovinco or Vazquez is difficult at the best of times. Now is far from ideal for the Reds, who are without a head coach after Greg Vanney stepped down last week and who are still unclear as to where they will be telling a new player he’s going to be playing next season because of border restrictions stemming from the pandemic. Toronto may be fighting an uphill battle.
The Reds can at least be comforted by the knowledge that they already have an MVP in house. Pozuelo said Monday he has played the best soccer of his career in the past three years. He hopes to keep that up next season.
“Next year I’ll try to do the same.”