According to a number of different reports out of Ecuador, Liga de Quito have confirmed that Joao Plata would be returning to them in the coming weeks. It seems they are set to recall him from Toronto FC and that was confirmed by the player via his twitter account last night when he retweeted LDU saying that he would be returning to them next week:

Les confirmo que hemos llegado a un acuerdo con la MLS por Joao Plata el jugador llegará la próxima semana

The terms of his departure are yet to be made clear but as of now it would seem that he would return to Toronto after 6 months should the Ecuadorian club not make a move to regain his complete rights. It is a continued illustration of just how mishandled the player and his transfer to MLS have been. When TFC drafted him they seemed to have no idea that he would come with a large transfer fee and a number of other difficulties should they chose to sign him long term. It seems that all they did was pay a fair bit to extend his loan and with TFC doing so poorly it seems his parent club wanted to bring him back to a better environment.

Now with the small winger heading back to Ecuador it might just afford Toronto a chance to cut their losses and not have a huge chunk of their salary cap spent on a player who seemed to be very much on the fringe under Paul Mariner. He will leave as a fan favourite though thanks to his goal scoring ways in cup competitions. Quite simply Toronto FC would not have gotten nearly as far in last years CCL if it had not been for the flashy winger so the fans will always remember him for that contribution. Others though, will note the fact that his lack of size and strength meant that for the most part he struggled to have the same kind of impact in league play.

Regardless of the terms of the whole thing, and make no mistake TFC made a big mess of this one, Plata will be missed by many fans but the club could soften the blow if they make good use of the cap space and the international slot it would free up .