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Toronto FC made yet another player move today, picking up Brazilian defender-turned-midfielder Julio Cesar, formerly of Sporting Kansas City, to a non-Designated Player contract.
This is not Julio Cesar, the Brazilian goalkeeper who plays for Queens Park Rangers alongside Toronto’s head coach, Ryan Nelsen, though he, too, would be an excellent Julio Cesar for Toronto FC.
Our Julio Cesar made his MLS debut with Kansas as a DP, but joins Toronto FC after being released at the end of the 2012 season. Kansas has a lot of options both at centerback and in midfield, and saw Julio Cesar as either too expensive to justify or simply surplus to requirements.
Fair enough – we’ll take him then!
Julio Cesar is the kind of player that, according to Kevin Payne, will make Toronto FC tougher.
"It's important that Toronto FC becomes a more difficult team to play against this year," said Payne. "Julio Cesar will be an important part of the backbone of our team in the middle of the field.
It’s important to note that Payne says Cesar will be used in the middle of the field, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be used only in midfield. Julio Cesar can potentially play as a centerback for Toronto FC, a position that the club has reinforced throughout the offseason with Danny Califf and Gale Agbossoumonde. Cesar will be one more option if Danny Califf or Darren O’Dea pick up injuries.
Julio Cesar is a technical midfielder, but at 34-years-old, he’s matching Torsten Frings in terms of long-term availability. Namely, Julio Cesar’s time at Toronto FC will be short, for no reason other than the fact that he’s only got a few years left in his career.
Unlike Frings, however, Cesar hasn’t really lost a step in pace or technique. Frings was battered with injuries but Cesar played a full season with Sporting KC and was instrumental in their rise to the top in Major League Soccer.
He’ll be important, too, in helping younger players in training. Still, his price tag should be hefty, and with already-bloated contracts in Richard Eckersley and O’Dea eating up much of the salary cap, alongside three Designated Players taking up roughly a third of the total anyway, one must wonder what Toronto FC is planning to do with their salary cap.
The rumour is, Toronto FC is shopping around for a rightback – could Richard Eckersley be on his way out? The Englishman has played over 75 games for the club, making him one of the more established names in TFC’s short history. His potential release would also irk a considerable faction of fans.
Still, no cause for concern just yet – as of now, Toronto FC has added a veteran presence in midfield, perhaps as a result of the botched deal with Honduran international Arnold Peralta, whose deal fell through for undisclosed reasons, though many suspect it was Peralta himself who didn’t want to sign.
Was Julio Cesar always in Toronto FC’s plans? It’s tough to tell. Had Peralta signed, Cesar’s signing would have been strange. The most likely scenario is that Toronto FC, having lost out on Peralta, jumped on Julio Cesar before the Brazilian found another club.
It’s a gamble, sure, but with Julio Cesar, Toronto FC has gained a solid presence in midfield as well as some much-needed depth in the backline.
Surely, that can’t hurt!
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