Spanish playmaker Victor Vazquez back for second stint with Toronto FC
TORONTO — Spanish playmaker Victor Vazquez is again within the Toronto FC fold.
The 35-year-old attacking midfielder spent the previous two seasons in Los Angeles however grew to become out there after the Galaxy elected to not train his contract possibility. Toronto then chosen him in Stage 2 of final month’s MLS re-entry draft.
Vazquez has signed by way of 2023 with an possibility for 2024.
“We are excited to have a player like Victor join the team and reinforce our midfield depth,” Bob Bradley, Toronto’s head coach and sporting director, mentioned in a press release Friday. “He is a talented player with a great understanding of the game, an excellent passer and brings experience and creativity to our midfield.”
Vazquez left Toronto in January 2019 after two profitable years to play in Qatar for Al-Arabi Sports Club and Umm Salal Sport Club. He joined Belgium’s Ok.A.S. Eupen in 2020.
“I am so happy to be back home,” Vazquez mentioned. “I cannot wait to see you all again and play in front of you on those special nights at BMO Field. We will have fun and bring the club back to the greatest, where it belongs.”
Vazquez joins a Toronto midfield that features captain Michael Bradley and Canadian internationals Jonathan Osorio and Mark-Anthony Kaye, with Italian star attackers Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi on the flanks.
A product of the FC Barcelona academy and former Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year, Vazquez was a giant a part of TFC’s glory days.
He scored the insurance coverage aim in Toronto’s 2-0 MLS Cup remaining win over Seattle in 2017 when he additionally helped TFC to the Supporters’ Shield and Canadian Championship. Vazquez was chosen as a member of the MLS Best XI after scoring eight objectives and including 16 assists in the course of the common season.
Vazquez totalled 18 objectives and 28 assists in 65 appearances in all competitions for TFC in 2017 and 18.
Vazquez joined FC Barcelona on the age of 10, working his manner up by way of the ranks to make his first-team debut in April 2008. He went on to hitch Club Brugge, scoring 25 objectives and including 50 assists in 5 seasons with the Belgian membership,
He spent 2016 in Mexico with Cruz Azul earlier than becoming a member of Toronto.
In two seasons with the Galaxy, Vazquez had 5 objectives and 11 assists in 57 appearances in all competitions.
Vazquez made US$440,000 final season with the Galaxy, which was sanctioned by MLS earlier this month for violating wage price range and roster pointers in the course of the 2019 season. The breaches didn’t concern Vazquez, who earned US$1.5 million in 2018 with Toronto.
The sanctions included embrace a US$1-million effective for the membership and US$1-million lack of out there future common allocation cash. The Galaxy had been additionally prohibited from registering a participant — like Vazquez — who requires the receipt of a world switch certificates from outdoors of the U.S. and Canada in the course of the secondary switch window in 2023.
When Vazquez left Toronto, then head coach Greg Vanney known as the Spaniard “a loyal servant to the club and a fantastic player, and an even better person.”
The two had been reunited when Vanney took over the Galaxy.
Vazquez was slowed by quite a lot of illnesses with Toronto in 2018, proscribing him to 21 league appearances. Its playoff hopes gone, the workforce shut him down for the remaining three video games of the season to bear arthroscopic knee surgical procedure.
Vazquez has had continual knee issues in his profession, however was additionally dogged by a nerve difficulty and a sore again with Toronto.
When wholesome, he triggered the assault.
“Victor makes you look better so it’s nice to have him on the field,” Osorio mentioned in July 2018. “His brain ticks a little bit faster than the normal brain, especially on the pitch. It’s amazing to watch.”
