by DENY GALLAGHER

Staff Writer

Last week, U.S. international Herculez Gomez made the decision to come back to MLS and sign with Toronto FC.

Was it all about the money? Not exactly. In an exclusive interview with EoS, Gomez reveals he turned down a bigger offer from the New York Cosmos to join MLS.

“It was just a better package for me with the way things were to come back to MLS,” said Gomez. “I’m not talking financially, because I think to be quite honest, the Cosmos would have won that.”

The striker claimed that it was always his intention to return to the league that he left five years ago. However, it was a late push by Toronto FC that helped the Canadian side secure his services.

“It was my intention to come back to MLS and the timing was just right,” said Gomez. “When things started getting serious and Kansas (City) started getting less serious, TFC kind of came out of nowhere and that was a very pleasant surprise.”

A big factor was reuniting with former Colorado Rapids teammate Greg Vanney, who is now in charge of the Toronto outfit. Combine that with the opportunity to play along side Giovinco, Jozy Altidore, and Michael Bradley and the striker’s decision was made that much easier.

“At the end, the relationship I have with Vanney previously from being his teammate, just having the same philosophy, and the opportunity to come into a team that is as exciting as TFC is, I just felt it could be a new adventure and an impactful event for my family,” he said.

The striker did have high praise for the New York Cosmos and in particular Sporting Director/Head Coach, Giovanni Savarese.

“Giovanni was great from the get-go,” he said. “He’s just an unbelievable human being. Just everything; the talks that we had and what not, they were very serious discussions.”

On Saturday night, Gomez came on as a second half sub and notched a little more than 20 minutes of play in his debut for Toronto FC against the New York Red Bulls.