Toronto FC’s biggest off-season acquisition has been 33-year-old Laurent Ciman, the 2015 MLS defender of the year, after the club conceded a franchise-worst 64 goals in 2018.

The Reds now have five centre backs — Ciman, Drew Moor, Chris Mavinga, Nick Hagglund and Eriq Zavaleta — which should help keep them fresher during a busy season with multiple competitions in play, which was an issue in a disappointing 2018 campaign.

“We’ve got two real verbal leaders in Drew and Laurent,” coach Greg Vanney said Thursday, after the introduction of new general manager Ali Curtis — replacing Tim Bezbatchenko, who was formally announced as president of the Columbus Crew on Friday. “We have guys like Chris, who’ve got phenomenal abilities to make plays and understand the role, and Nick and Eriq, I think, are still good players who benefit from having leadership next to them.”

Most recently, Ciman played with FC Dijon in France’s Ligue 1, after years in Major League Soccer with the Montreal Impact and Los Angeles FC. The French club agreed to terminate his contract when he got the chance to return to Canada, where his autistic daughter Nina has received care that Ciman has praised in the past.

The defender is keen to get started with Toronto FC’s free-flowing style of play, Vanney added.

“This is a place that he’s wanted to be for a while,” the coach said. “He’s a player that we’ve always envied from afar as an opponent and had to manage when we played against him, so it’s always good to have those guys on your side.”

ALTIDORE’S STEP: Striker Jozy Altidore had surgery to remove a bone fragment from his right ankle in late October, missing TFC’s final game of the season. The 29-year-old American has started to run again, and Vanney said Altidore might be ready to go in the first couple of weeks of the season, but that timeline isn’t set in stone.

“I think it will be a progression through pre-season to get him to doing all the things he needs to do to be competitively ready, and then it’ll be a match fitness thing,” the coach said.

Altidore, entering the final year of his contract, scored seven goals in 13 regular-season games last year.

LOSING LUCAS: Forward Lucas Janson, who joined Toronto FC on loan from Argentina’s Tigre in August using targeted allocation money, appears unlikely to return. The Reds declined to exercise a reported $3.7-million U.S. option on his contract, and his loan expired on Dec. 31.

“There’s still dialogue that’s going back and forth to see if there’s something that we can work out,” Vanney said Thursday. “We’ll see where that goes. I’d love to have him back if it works. I think he continued to get better and better as the season progressed.”

Janson scored four goals for TFC in 11 appearances, including a pair in the final regular-season game.

The Reds also declined Canadian striker Tosaint Ricketts’ contract option in November, and Canadian striker Jordan Hamilton’s deal expired at year’s end, leaving the Reds with five forwards on a 25-man roster.

DeLEON DEPLOYMENT: Nick DeLeon, acquired in December’s re-entry draft, is expected to play on the wing. The 28-year-old veteran of 180 MLS games, all with D.C. United, started his career as a midfielder but has transitioned to defence. Vanney — who has known DeLeon since he was a teenager and, as a kid, was coached by DeLeon’s father in Arizona — plans to make the switch in an effort to help TFC’s offence.

FRESH START: Vanney has had more time than he wanted to look back at a dismal 2018 MLS season, finishing 14 points out of a playoff spot one year after capturing the MLS Cup. With the pre-season less than two weeks away, though, he’s looking forward with optimism.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“I think we have a great team,” he said. “I think if we can stay healthy and come back in, everybody, with the right mindset just to get better every day and work hard together, then we can achieve big things again this year.”

Training camp starts Jan. 14.

Read more about: