Toronto FC entered the 2009 Major League Soccer SuperDraft with three first-round picks - the second, fourth and 13th overall - but it's not certain how many the third-year club will have or where they will be in the selection process when the draft takes place today in St. Louis.
TFC manager Mo Johnston has a well-earned reputation for being willing to make a deal. And leading up to the draft, there was speculation Toronto was trying to obtain the expansion Seattle Sounders' first-overall pick or perhaps dangling its picks in an effort to obtain a more experienced player.
Today's event is considered a deep draft compared to the past couple of years. Johnston and TFC head coach John Carver attended this past weekend's coaching combine in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to get a last look at some of the players eligible.
University of Connecticut forward and Toronto native O'Brian White, who won the U.S. National Collegiate Athletic Association's most valuable player award in 2007, would have been a sure first-round pick and a logical one for TFC. But last season he suffered a knee injury that required surgery, keeping him out for six months. It is now not certain where he might go in the draft.
Last year, Toronto took defender Julius James with its first pick (ninth overall). He was traded last month to the Houston Dynamo in the deal that brought home midfielder Dwayne De Rosario of Toronto.
When Johnston managed the New York MetroStars (now the Red Bulls), he traded up for the No. 1 pick overall in the 2006 draft and used it to take defender Marvell Wynne from the University of California, Los Angeles. Wynne followed Johnston to TFC via a trade early in the 2007 season.
In the second round in 2006, and with the 17th pick overall, Johnston was able to take 16-year-old forward Josmer Altidore. Johnston had watched him with the U.S. under-17 team.
Altidore showed immense potential in the MLS for the Red Bulls and last season he was sold to Spain's Villarreal for $10-million (U.S.) - the largest transfer payment for an MLS player.
In the 2007 draft, Johnston used the expansion team's first overall pick on midfielder Maurice Edu from the University of Maryland.
Edu was MLS rookie of the year in 2007, and last season was sent to Rangers of the Scottish Premier League for $5-million. (MLS receives one-third of the transfer fee and the team losing him gets the rest.)
Meanwhile, TFC chose not to exercise contract options on four players from its 2008 roster: defenders Killian Elkinson and Derek Gaudet, midfielder Joey Melo and forward Carlos Ruiz.
Five to watch in the draft:
- Steve Zakuani, Akron, forward
- Stefan Frei, California, goalkeeper
- Sam Cronin, Wake Forest, midfielder
- Omar Gonzalez, Maryland, defender
- Kevin Alston, Indiana, defender