Jozy Altidore has officially returned to Major League Soccer.
The US men’s national team striker completed his transfer to Toronto FC from English Premier League club Sunderland on Friday, with the Reds signing the 25-year-old Altidore to a Designated Player contract after acquiring him via the MLS allocation ranking. Per club and league policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Toronto was ranked sixth in the allocation order, using their spot to land Altidore after the Montreal Impact, San Jose Earthquakes, Colorado Rapids, Chicago Fire and Houston Dynamo declined to use their allocation spots on the two-time World Cup veteran.
“Our top priority is building a winning club with players that are committed to the TFC vision," Toronto FC GM Tim Bezbatchenko said in a club statement. "Jozy is a special player, and checks off all of the boxes that we look for in a player.”
In order to make room for Altidore, Toronto FC also announced on Thursday the transfer of DP forward Jermain Defoe to Sunderland. The former English international had 11 goals in 19 games in his injury-plagued lone MLS season in 2014. Rumors that Defoe was on the move from Toronto date back to the fall, and reports out of England indicated that a number of EPL sides were interested in the former Tottenham star.
“Our vision over the past 18 months has been to establish Toronto FC’s international presence, and while just with us for one year, Jermain Defoe played an important role in helping us achieve that goal,” Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of MLSE, said in the statement. “We appreciate the fact that he worked very closely with us through this process, and while he had a number of options, he ultimately agreed to a deal that would be in the best interests of both the player and TFC. He wanted to ensure that TFC and its fans will benefit from this transfer, and we have."
Altidore is the second high-profile American international to join Toronto FC in the last year. Michael Bradley joined TFC from Italian giants Roma last January, signing a DP contact with the Reds just days after the club announced that they had signed Defoe.
Altidore began his career in MLS, recording 15 goals and five assists in 37 games across parts of three seasons with the New York Red Bulls before heading to Europe in the summer of 2008. He has the fifth most goals in US national team history, scoring 25 times in 76 caps since first appearing for the USMNT in 2007.
He's also the second USMNT player to join MLS in the past week, joining New York City FC pickup Mix Diskerud, who signed a deal with the 2015 MLS expansion side. There are now 13 players from the USMNT's 23-man World Cup squad in Brazil playing in MLS.
