Cyle Larin earned the nickname ‘the Silent Giant’ for good reasons with the Sigma FC youth team in Toronto. He was often head and shoulders the biggest kid on the pitch and scored goals for fun, but he was also the quietest. Likewise at the University of Connecticut, the 6ft 2in striker was a force to be reckoned with but rarely talked the talk to go with his goal-scoring walk.

The physical attributes were there for all to see. The mental ones? It was hard to say. Which is why Orlando City admit they couldn’t be sure what they were getting when they selected Larin first overall in this year’s MLS SuperDraft, prior to their inaugural season in the league.

The pick has paid off handsomely, though, with Larin scorching to 17 goals in just 26 appearances this season, including two more in last Friday’s dramatic 2-1 win over New York City. He has broken the previous best for a first-year MLS striker by six – with one game to play – and is an absolute no-doubt for the Rookie of the Year award.

It amounts to arguably the most impressive rookie campaign in the league’s 20-year history, yet there was no real hint this kind of output was in the offing, especially as Larin was firmly buried on the Orlando depth chart when the season started.

Most observers – notably his coaches at both Sigma and UConn – felt the Canadian kid from Brampton, Ontario, was a no-brainer. In terms of his sheer physicality, he was the prototypical centre-forward, and he had a seemingly insatiable appetite for goal-scoring. But there have been plenty of athletic players who have failed to make the MLS grade, with previous can’t-miss choices such as Nikolas Besagno, Danny Mwanga and Omar Salgado all struggling.

The jump from college to pro level has also become something of a chasm in recent years with the influx of talent into the league ranks serving to raise the level of both on-field quality and the fitness requirements that go with it.

College players typically churn through no more than a 20-game season, spread over four months, with much of the travelling of the regional variety and training strictly limited by NCAA rules. In the pro ranks, the demands escalate dramatically to a 34-game season, plus US Open Cup games, friendlies, training every day, and, in a few cases, internationals. The travelling is nationwide and the soccer year lasts almost 10 months with the pre-season and play-offs.

With the 20-year-old Larin being the strong, silent type, it was hard to gauge his readiness for the grind of a full MLS campaign, coupled with regular calls from the Canada national team to far-flung outposts like Puerto Rico, Belize and Dominica.

So Orlando wound him up, pointed him in the right direction – and held their breath. Now, the Lions can well and truly exhale after a spectacular season in which he was never intended to be the starter in Adrian Heath’s 4-2-3-1 formation. Injuries and fitness worries over the four men in front of him forced the coach’s hand in the first month, and the rest has been truly history-making.

There have already been comparisons with Christian Benteke and Patrick Kluivert, with the Silent Giant hitting the back of the net at a rate of a goal every 1.6 games, one of the highest strike ratios in the league. He really grabbed national attention with his hat-trick against New York City in July and followed it up with another three-goal salvo against New York Red Bulls on 25 September – left foot, right foot and header, the perfect scorer’s treble.

He has scored both inside the box and out, tap-ins and pile-drivers, to mark him out as, if not the finished article just yet, then certainly a far more polished product than the diamond in the rough that started the season. It has left head coach Heath in no doubt it is the start of a major career.

“This year was always going to be a learning process for Cyle and, to be honest, we weren’t sure what we were going to get out of him,” Heath said. “He has always been bigger and stronger than anyone at college level, but that isn’t going to work on its own in the professional world, so the question was could he be smarter as well? Could he take the stuff we work on in training and implement it on the field? The pleasing thing is he has.

“We’ve obviously got a lot more out of him than we thought but the most important thing is that he’s learning. It is not just a case of scoring a goal but taking the information on board and making it work in a game situation. Now he is being smarter, and the good thing from his point of view is that he is only going to get stronger. He has a big future ahead of him.”



In many ways, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise Larin lived up to his top pick status. He had impressed every coach on his journey from the ranks of Brampton Wildcats as a six-year-old, when he discovered an innate ability to put the ball in the net and the desire to keep doing it.

“I kind of knew I had the talent for it from an early age,” Larin admitted. “And, when I went to Sigma at 11, that’s when I really thought I could take it to the next stage. I went overseas a lot and saw a different lifestyle associated with the game and I loved it. We played against the Ajax youth team in Amsterdam and that really opened my eyes. This was what I wanted to do.”

At Sigma, the young Larin came under the tutelage of technical director Bobby Smyrniotis, a UEFA-registered coach who had worked with the youth teams at both Olympiakos in Greece and Ajax, and he immediately made a big impression.

Smyrniotis, who most likens Larin to former Dutch international Kluivert, recalled: “He was playing at a good level at that age but the most important thing was that he always wanted to learn. He had a sense of maturity about him, even as a kid.

“He always paid a lot of attention to what he had to do on the field and what he had to do to get better. With many developing players, it is a question of not letting them get too excited about their successes and not letting them get too down about other things, and that was something Cyle was always able to balance in his head.

“He had some special tools but he was always looking to develop the finer points, an understanding and intuition for the game itself. Clubs overseas would ask, ‘Can he play at the next level?’ And there was never any doubt in my mind. He has the intangibles and the mentality to stay humble about the game and to succeed in it.”

It was at Sigma that Larin picked up his nickname. “Yes, he was the silent giant,” Smyrniotis confirmed. “Even when he complained to the referee, he would be practically whispering. He was always a very quiet kid but he was always a responsible young man with his mother and his younger siblings. He was a big brother figure at home and that sense of family has been important to him.”

Indeed, it played a big part in his choice of college and, ultimately, his decision to opt for the MLS SuperDraft instead of following up interest in him from Europe, notably from Racing Genk in Belgium – who saw him as the next Benteke – as well as a team in Germany and two in England, including a Premier League outfit.

Larin admitted: “I had been to visit Syracuse and Oregon State before UConn but, once I saw the environment at UConn, I knew it was for me. It was a very professional set-up, the fans came out to support the team in big numbers and the coaches took good care of me. I wanted to feel comfortable and feel part of something, and I think that’s the most important thing for me, that sense of belonging.”

UConn associate head coach Tim O’Donohue had spotted Larin in Toronto during his senior year at high school, and head coach Ray Reid confirmed they were all in on the youngster. “Timmy saw him and just fell in love with him in playing terms. He was a big, athletic, strong kid with a nose for goal, a great kid with a great family, and we try to make it a good family environment here, where guys can grow as people and learn more than just football.

“I think that stuck with Cyle and, when it came time to decide if he was going to turn pro, we had multiple conversations with Orlando general manager Paul McDonough – who had been my assistant here for six years – about finding the right environment for him and, while we would have loved to have had him for a third year, it was a good choice for him.”

The Lions won the lottery with fellow expansion outfit New York City for the No1 pick and there was never any doubt they would select Larin. “I had seen a lot of Cyle in his freshman year at UConn and the guys I trusted also confirmed he had a real talent,” McDonough explained.

“As the draft approached, we looked at him harder and harder and decided he was pretty much our guy. You have to listen to offers with the top pick but there was nothing that approached our valuation of him. And, knowing how much he likes strikers, Adrian would have killed me if I traded him.

“Now I think everything has been fully justified. Adrian has done an amazing job of mentoring him, and being hard on him when he’s needed to be, and Cyle has listened and taken it on the field with him. Sigma gave him good fundamentals, UConn built on that and Adrian has taken it to a whole new level.”

Larin himself is still the quiet, almost studious type who rarely speaks up and has reporters straining to pick up his words at post-game media conferences. For his size, he has yet to make a physical impact on defenders in the same way as the 6ft 2in Kluivert did and the equally formidable Benteke has done with Genk, Aston Villa and Liverpool.

The comparisons with big-name European strikers may be a touch premature but there is no doubt scouts in that part of the world are aware of him already and will pay close attention to his exploits, especially in his sophomore MLS season.

Equally, there is no question the striker has found his home for the time being. “It is a great environment for me,” he insisted. “I’m really close with the team, and Orlando is a good place to be. The fans are amazing and I’m always being pushed to do the right things and get better each day. This is where I can develop properly and where I am comfortable. It has worked out perfectly for me.”

And the Silent Giant bit? “I was quiet since I was a little kid. My mum told me I was quiet from very early on and the only time I was ever a problem was if I was hungry! I’m not an outgoing guy – I just play, keep things simple and like to relax.”

There might not be too many defenders who are allowed to relax when Larin is on the prowl in future.