TORONTO – Benoit Cheyrou has already made a big impression at Toronto FC.
The 33-year-old midfielder joined the Canadian outfit in January after seven seasons at French powerhouse Marseille, and has since established himself as a key starter for the new-look Reds.
Having started in midfield in all four of TFC’s matches this season – and taken the captain's armband on March 29 against Real Salt Lake – Cheyrou scored his debut goal April 4 in a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Fire, and he appears to be the answer to last season’s question of who lines up alongside full-time captain Michael Bradley.
For TFC head coach Greg Vanney, the Frenchman offers experience, plus considerable skill on both sides of the ball. Vanney describes Cheyrou as a “great talent, soccer-wise,” albeit one who is still finding his feet in Major League Soccer.
“Benoit is still sort of feeling out the league,” Vanney said last week. “For example, when you come from Marseille, players don’t just turn over the ball when they shouldn’t turn over the ball. You have to be ready for those transitions at all times because they’re going to come when they shouldn’t come. That’s getting used to the league.
“Guys will also come pressure you, when, normally, in a different league, they might stay in their shape because they’ve got to protect themselves,” Vanney continued. “All of a sudden, a guy is sprinting at you, but you’ve got to be aware of that in this league, where in another league, maybe that doesn’t happen because their shape is more important. It’s about getting an understanding of how quickly things come and sometimes, to him, things aren’t always rational like he’s used to them being rational where he was before.”
Cheyrou agreed with Vanney’s assessment, saying that makes it all the more important to get to know his teammates and gain understanding among the group so that they can “play like a team and not 11 players,” he said.
“It’s very different,” Cheyrou said of MLS in comparison with the French Ligue 1. “Here, it’s always 100 percent. In Europe, we have high-level tempo and slow-level tempo, and we have to improve that here to control the game. You cannot run 100-percent each game, so we have to manage it and to improve in this compartment of the game.”
Vanney knows all this first-hand, having spent time in both MLS and in France, where he played three-and-a-half seasons in Ligue 1 with Bastia. Cheyrou remembers Vanney from the coach's 2002-2005 spell and says his now-boss made quite the impression as an opposition player.
“It was weird for French people to see American people come to France, so everybody knows him there,” Cheyrou said. “For French players, it’s not every weekend you have an American teammate or opponent. But he showed that he had the level to play there, and he did great things there too.”
Cheyrou also said several players who he’s met over the course of his career, namely MLS veterans Thierry Henry, Djimi Traore and Laurent Courtois, helped him make the decision to join Toronto FC. He said he asked so many questions that nothing about the league has surprised him.
The fact that he's already worn the armband, while Bradley was away with the US national team, shows the adjustment has been a quick one, and that he has already established himself as a leader in the locker room. Cheyrou said it’s a role he says he will fill if needed, and not something he is actively seeking.
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“I expect nothing,” he said, when asked about leadership roles in the team. “I am Benoit Cheyrou. I think it’s important not to change and just be yourself. Against Salt Lake, I was captain because a lot of players weren’t there. It was a big sign of confidence from the coach, and I appreciate it, but if I am or I’m not captain, it makes no difference to me. Do your job and help the players around you, speak in the locker rooms. I can help the team like that, I think.”
Toronto FC have already faced long road trips to Vancouver and Real Salt Lake – another aspect of the league Cheyrou has been forced to adapt to – and are facing another tough trip this weekend for a Saturday matchup with FC Dallas (8:30 pm ET; TSN5). It will be the fifth of seven road games to open the season for TFC before their home opener on May 10 against the Houston Dynamo, pushed back due to the expansion and upgrade of BMO Field.
“It’s also strange to have seven games on the road,” Cheyrou said. “But it’s a big challenge for us, and we have no choice. We have to take points away to be confident for the first game in May at BMO Field. I can’t wait to play in Toronto. I want to feel this experience with our fans in our stadium.”
