TORONTO—Mark Bloom wants to make one thing perfectly clear: although he calls Florida home, he has no ties to the city of Orlando.

Bloom, a native of Georgia, lives in Florida with his wife Emma, who is a member of the United States Navy Nurse Corps stationed in Pensacola. And his infant daughter Dagny, the young couple’s first child, was born in Florida.

So when Bloom was left unprotected by Toronto FC in December’s MLS expansion draft, some media and TFC fans interpreted that as a sign that the right fullback was not only going to be selected by Orlando City, but that he was also anxious for a permanent move back to Florida.

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Nothing could be further from the truth explained Bloom, who recently signed a multi-year contract extension with TFC.

“I saw some mock drafts and blogs that had me going there because they thought for some reason I’m from Orlando or that I had connections to the city,” Bloom told Sportsnet.

“I live in Florida, but we’re a six-hour drive from Orlando. So I don’t know how all of that started. Staying in the state of Florida isn’t a big deal for me. I wanted to stay in Toronto—that’s why I signed a new deal.”

Bloom joined Toronto in July of 2013 on loan from the Atlanta Silverbacks of the second-tier North American Soccer League. He was later signed to a fulltime deal, and quickly established himself as one of TFC’s most reliable and consistent players. He was also a great bargain—he earned $46,500 US in 2013 and 48,825 last year.

Even though Bloom still had two seasons left on his old contract, general manager Tim Bezbatchenko told reporters at the beginning of the 2014 MLS season that he planned to sit down with the defender at the end of the year and offer him a new deal.

Bloom described the negotiations between his agent and Bezbatchneko as “fair, with no trace of negativity.”

“Tim told me I’d be getting a new contract offer, and I trusted him, so we weren’t too pushy. It was on the free will of TFC, so I think that says a lot about Tim and the club and how they take care of the players. They didn’t have to redo my contract, so I’m very thankful,” Bloom said.

“We probably would have asked for a new contract if they didn’t make the first move, but it’s nice that they came forward and started the conversation.”

Did he fear being traded if he couldn’t come to terms on a new deal?

“I never once got that feeling. You never know what’s going on behind closed doors, but I don’t think they were ever pursuing that. Maybe if I was asking for too much money they would have thought I didn’t want to work with them or be part of the team. But the way things went, there was zero sense from me they were looking to trade me,” Bloom stated.

Fair enough. But if Toronto FC prized Bloom so much, how come they left him unprotected for last month’s expansion draft? Surely, Bezbatchenko was running the risk of losing Bloom to either Orlando City or New York City FC, wasn’t he?

Bloom wasn’t worried.

“I got a call before the list came out, and Tim explained I wasn’t going to be protected. He wanted to reiterate the fact they were committed to me and the new contract was going to reflect that,” Bloom explained.

“But he also said they had other priorities they had to protect, and that they had heard Orlando and New York weren’t interested in defenders, so they figured they’d protect the guys who were in danger of being selected, rather than me.”

It could have backfired, though, had Orlando or New York picked Bloom. In the end, it worked out. TFC midfielder Dan Lovitz was selected by New York (who hours later trade him back to Toronto for allocation money). Teams were allowed to protect an unprotected player once they lost someone. When New York selected Lovitz eighth overall, Toronto protected Bloom. All’s well that ends well.

“It was always a calculated risk,” Bloom admitted.

Bloom was one of TFC’s best players in the first half of last season. But then he suffered an MCL strain that sidelined him for six games. Then his wife went into labour, and he flew back to Florida to be there for the birth of his daughter. Noticeably, the quality of his performances down the season stretch suffered—he wasn’t the same player.

“It was an interesting time for me because I was coming off an injury and then my daughter was born so I was back and forth between Florida. It was difficult for me to get back into it,” Bloom acknowledged.

“The team was also going through a lot of transition. We had changed coaches, we were changing the system, we weren’t doing well as a team, so it was combination of a lot of different things.”

Even though he’s in Florida, he’s been following the team’s off-season moves, including last week’s swap deal that saw Toronto FC send Jermain Defoe to Sunderland for Jozy Altidore.

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Defoe left Toronto just one year into his contract, but Bloom doesn’t think the club made a mistake bringing him in.

“It just didn’t work out,” Bloom said. “He was a great teammate and I loved having him around the locker-room. On the field, when he was healthy, I thought he did a great job.

“Maybe he didn’t have the full desire to be in Toronto and stay in Toronto; so in that sense it was okay to see him go. But I don’t think he was a distraction.”

Bloom’s also excited about playing with Altidore because he thinks the American forward brings something different to the team.

“He’s a threat. His size and his athleticism—I think the way he plays, he’ll fit in well in MLS,” Bloom offered. “He’s going to be that guy who holds the ball up for us, which we haven’t really had too much of. That’ll be a nice little change, a nice outlet for us when we’re under a lot of pressure—we can lump the ball up to him, he can hold it and we can play off of that.”

Bloom and his teammates are expected to report back to Toronto this weekend, and begin pre-season training camp next week. For now, he’s busy caring for his daughter while his wife is back at work.

“It’s been 12 to 13 hour days on my own with her, but it’s been awesome. I’ve been able to spend a lot of quality time with her, which is great because I’ll be leaving soon,” Bloom said.