Toronto FC is entertaining offers for striker Joao Plata, one of the club’s most popular players.

Earl Cochrane, TFC’s director of team and player operations, said at halftime of the Reds game against the New York Red Bulls Saturday night that the club has fielded several queries about the diminutive 20-year-old Ecuadorian international.

“The fact that we’ve got some depth in that position allows us to even entertain this,” Cochrane told reporters at BMO Field, stressing that no deal has been finalized.

Plata, who has not played in the five games since Paul Mariner took over as head coach, including Saturday when he was listed as having a hamstring strain, has no goals in 10 Major League Soccer appearances this season. He had three goals and five assists in 26 matches as a teenaged rookie in 2011 on loan from Liga de Quito.

TFC signed him to a multi-year contract in the off-season.

Cochrane, who said Quito is one of the clubs that has approached TFC for a loan, said it would see Plata return to Toronto in January ahead of the 2013 MLS season.

Cochrane said lending out Plata would not only get him playing time but also “free up some space for us to get a player who we probably think that we would need more.”

Mariner confirmed on Friday that TFC, one of the poorest defensive teams in MLS, is interested in trying to land veteran Italian international defender Alessandro Nesta. The 36-year-old announced in May he was looking to play outside Europe.

Nesta has also been rumoured to be on the radar of the Red Bulls and Montreal Impact.

Cochrane admitted that if Plata is not moved on loan it might be difficult to accommodate Nesta under the salary cap.