Gilardino to Toronto FC: Hot then Cold... then Hot again

News coming from Sky Italy's Gianluca Di Marzio today has Alberto Gilardino dusting off Toronto FC's 3-year offer of $12M (that's $4M/year), who seems to have lifted his doubts about the Reds.

Di Marzio broke the news in English through his right-hand-man David Amoyal:


On November 6, we revealed that TFC was in the hunt for a designated player in the Red's attack, and Gilardino was their number 1 target.  However, things cooled off just a week later, with the same Di Marzio informing his followers that Gilardino was not fully convinced of Toronto as a destination.

Today's update confirmed that Gilardino is very likely to come to Toronto, but only in the summer 2014 (not at season's start in March) as he wants to finish his season with Genoa, and hopefully, feature in next summer's World Cup.

At Catenaccio, we continue to hold that the 2006 World champion's his main concern is to maintain a fertile environment for productivity in his current club Genoa FC, which in turn will help him in his pursuit of a spot among the 23 that will fly to Brazil for World Cup 2014.  By the same token, we believe that he is genuinely interested in coming to Toronto, but will make his decision after Prandelli has made his final list.

So where does this leave Toronto FC? They may decide to opt for other solutions, such as Jermaine Defoe and now Samuel Eto'o, if Gilardino doesn't make his mind up soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

#SerieA Road Trip Personal Blog Day 8, Paying Respects to Crosstown Rivals

Image
As a Juventino who is not from Turin it's difficult to fully appreciate the rivalry with crosstown rivals AC Torino. Perhaps this one is the least balanced crosstown derbies in Italy: Hellas-Chievo in Verona, Inter-Milan in Milan, Genoa-Sampdoria in Genoa, Roma-Lazio in Rome, can go either way in any given year. For the better part of the last 20 years Juventus-Torino is a derby that has gone one way: the bianconeri 's.  In fact, Torino hasn't even scored a goal in a derby in the last decade. This hasn't made a difference, however, with respect to the historical rivalry that exists between the two factions. As soon as you identify yourself as a Juventus fan, some  granata  fans will turn away or simply call you a " Gobbo di Merda " (shitty juventus fan - gobbo , hunchback, is a nickname for Juventus fans).  I did attend the last derby in February 2014, and was able to gain an appreciation for the rivalry between the two sides. This time aroun
Read more

My very personal wish to Juventus on her 120th birthday

Image
Iconic Giovanni Trapattoni carried to victory in 1977 by Juventus players. In the foreground: Causio, Scirea, and Cabrini. In occasion of Juventus FC's 120th birthday, I want to take advantage of this platform to give you an account of what Juventus means to me. I wrestled with the idea of writing this due to some of its very personal insights into my life, but I nevertheless believe that it's important that I share this story with my readers/followers. Juventus represents for me a constant that bridged many of life's cliffs, providing thus safe passage to the other side of the abyss. I began supporting Juventus because it was my best friend's team. I was 8 years old, and soon after I started supporting Juventus, she underwent a 9-year scudetto drought. I didn't know major victories while I supported the bianconeri  in Italy, as a child. I didn't know what it meant to live a magical Wednesday night of Champions Cup football. I didn't know any
Read more

My Champions League Final

Image
On my commute home one cool evening in May I feel my phone buzzing in my jacket's pocket. I pick up. "Hey, man, listen. I've got to tell you something: I've got to go", my friend Jack intimates. "And you need my permission?", I reply jokingly. "No, dude. I have to go to the final". With these words, Jack opened a door for me to complete the dream of a lifetime: to watch Juventus play and - let's not kid anyone - win a Champions League Final. Another acquaintance of mine, Dom, had already planted a little bug in my ear, suggesting that we meet in Cardiff for the final before Juve's second semifinal against Monaco, generously offering me to split his accommodations if I decided to go. The Clincher In that phone call, Jack told me that unbeknownst to each other, we both had made separate requests for a single ticket to the Juventus Club DOC of Toronto . After a protracted and iterative process my membership ($65/season)
Read more