Toronto, the new life of Italian “expats”

After Criscito and Insigne, Bernardeschi will also play in Canada

the analysis

Welcomed, paid, treated and treated as if the cows of the football industry were still fat. Insigne, Criscito and Bernardeschi have chosen to experience life as emigrant footballers of ultra-luxury in Toronto. For the capital of Ontario it is nothing new to welcome football workers from Italy: the landing of the trio, made up of two reigning European champions and the former Genoa captain, represents the third migratory flow.

The first at the time of the late Nasl, the first American league, started in the seventies, with Paolo Barison in the Toronto Metros, and continued until 1983, the year of Roberto Bettega’s arrival in the Toronto Blizzard already attended by Marino Perani and Roberto Vieri ; the second in the golden four-year period from 2015 to 2019, with the advent of Major League Soccer, personified by Sebastian Giovinco at Toronto Fc. Same goal chosen earlier by Lorenzo the Magnificent, signing in January in a hotel in Rome the first contract outside Naples which would come into force at the end of the championship; then by Mimmo, postponing the landing in Canada at the end of the season (which ended with the relegation) of Genoa; and finally by Federico already renamed “Brunelleschi”, not finding the square with Napoli and Atalanta at the exit from the luster in the Juve jersey. Salaries for Italian football workforce that on the budget of Toronto FC, the only non-US team to win Major League Soccer (in 2017), involve an annual expenditure of almost 30 million dollars gross salary. Which, divided net, are 8.5 at least until 2026 for the former Napoli captain, 2.5 until 2024 for the former Genoa player and 5 (richer bonuses) at least for a four-year period for the former Juventus joker. .

Stuff still for the rich, almost simultaneously with Giorgio Chiellini’s move to Los Angeles, but much more articulated in meaning. While not risking relegation, an unknown word in the vocabulary of American sports, Toronto FC, penultimate in the standings, wants to relive the good old days, not too far away, with Giovinco, 83-goal totem in 141 appearances, who brought a Major League Soccer (2017), three Canadian Championships (the Canadian Cup) and a Concacaf Champions League final. An idea that President Bill Manning came up with last summer when he checked on the internet who were the players of Italy’s champions of Europe who are about to expire their contract. “I saw that Insigne was there and I was looking for a player who would bring people back to the stadium.” “But there will still be other Italian players”, swears more than one market operator. Perhaps Belotti, if one of the three places for the “Designated Player” (the exceptions to the salary cap) were to be vacated. Made in Italy applied to football, in a city with districts called Little Italy and Corso Italia and with a population of 8.3% Italian Canadians, is still pulling. «I feel like I’m at home», Insigne’s first words upon arrival in Canada. “Operation nostalgia, with stadiums and portfolios full. –