TORONTO

To this day, Danny Dichio still remembers cursing ex-Toronto FC manager Mo Johnston.

“Freakin’ Mo,” Dichio recalled thinking at his first training session after joining TFC for its inaugural season.

“I had no idea that BMO Field was turf,” the TFC legend added. “When I first walked out of the tunnel, I was like: ‘Wow! This is pretty green field. This is a nice field.’

“Then I stepped on to it and was like: ‘Mo didn’t tell me this was a turf field!’”

Now 41, Dichio’s TFC journey might have ended well before it began back in 2007, had he known about the plastic pitch — a surface that was “pretty hard” on Dichio’s 6-foot-3 frame.

But here we are a decade later, 48 hours before Dichio is set to be recognized for his contributions. The Reds will honour Dichio prior to Saturday’s match as part of the club’s Heritage Series.

What fans might not remember, though, is that the man whose name is synonymous with the 24th minute wouldn’t have scored TFC’s first ever goal had it not been for a clerical error.

With an eye towards Major League Soccer, Dichio was granted a short leave from Preston North End to train with Chicago prior to Toronto’s inaugural season. He planned to sign there.

“We decided as a family to move to North America,” Dichio told the Sun. “My wife is American. We wanted to bring our family over. I wanted to play in MLS to finish my career and get into coaching.”

All was swell until Chicago’s front office asked for the Englishman’s non-existent green card. Long story short, the Fire couldn’t use an international slot on a big target man. Dichio was out of luck.

“I said: ‘I don’t know where you got that from. I’m a British passport-holder,’” Dichio reminisced.

“I said: ‘I’ve never lived in America. How can I have a green card?’”

Upset with how it all played out, Dichio packed his bags, sacked his agent and returned home.

Upon learning of how things unfolded, multiple MLS team — including Toronto FC — immediately reached out.

“I was pretty pissed at the time and told them I just wanted to concentrate on my English club and the season,” Dichio said.

“(Toronto FC coach) Mo Johnston said, ‘Look, we’ve had two games so far. We haven’t scored a goal. We need you to come over for the start of next week.’”

Dichio Googled the city, but didn’t really look at the 2007 team. He’d heard only bad things.

Still, there was something about the mystique of an expansion team — the new stadium, the city.

“That really appealed to me,” Dichio said, adding that his wife still “kills him” for leaving her to move the family over that summer.

After coming to terms with Toronto FC it took less than a month for Dichio to garner a cult following.

The hard-as-nails target man cemented himself in TFC folklore after scoring the Reds’ first ever goal in its first win over Chicago.

“Honestly, I feel like I was just in the right place at the right time,” Dichio said, sentiment he has repeated on more than one occasion.

It had to be someone, though. To this day, everyone knows and remembers his name.

“My kids look back at the goal and say: ‘Dad, it wasn’t that good of a goal, was it?’

“One thing I really regret is them not being here on that day. The celebration that they missed. The huge relief of us finally scoring a goal.”

There have been important moments since, but Dichio’s moment — a goal that ended seat cushion giveaways — is easily one of the top five occurrences in TFC history.

A few seasons later, Dichio was asked to retire to make room for Julian de Guzman, the club’s first Designated Player. Dichio has been a senior academy coach ever since.

“The club has looked after me and my family in such a nice way that I feel that I owe the club and MLSE and Toronto a lot,” he said.

“We came to Toronto and it was the unknown. After a week, we knew it was a place we wanted to bring our family. The Canadian people were genuine and nice to us. That made us feel at home.”

He says his loyalty will span as many years as the club wants it to.

“I owe that to the club. I really do,” Dichio said.

“I love my job. I love helping the younger generation. It’s a joy.”

DO IT FOR A SONG

During the first half of every game, Toronto FC fans sing Danny Dichio’s name throughout the 24th minute — the minute in which Dichio potted TFC’s first-ever goal back in 2007.

Ahead of Saturday’s Heritage Series match against visiting Vancouver, we asked Dichio to offer up which past or present TFC player he’d sing for.

“Amado Guevara,” Dichio told the Toronto Sun this week. “He just had an extravagant name and a wonderful nickname (The Wolf) and he was a great guy, as well.

“He doesn’t understand English so you can sing whatever you want about him.”

Guevara appeared in 46 games for Toronto FC between 2008 and 2009, scoring nine goals and adding 10 assists.

klarson@postmedia.com

@KurtLarSUN