Toronto FC reportedly make big money bid for Alberto Gilardino

A 6 million Euro transfer fee and 7 million Euro over 3 seasons.  That is the reported offer that Toronto FC have made to Alberto Gilardino and Genoa to try and secure the Italian forward as the club's newest designated player.  It is serious money to be offering and would take up a large portion of that war chest that Toronto FC's brass have been talking about in recent months.

When transferred over to Canadian dollars it works out to just over $8.5 million in transfer fees and over $10 million in wages over the three years of the contract for a total of nearly $19 million dollars to bring the player to Toronto.  It is certainly the kind of offer that would make Genoa and Gilardino at least stop and consider it as an option.  Considering that Genoa reportedly spent 8 million Euro on the player less than 2 years ago this would seem like a fair deal for them to let the 31-year-old go.

The numbers are being reported by Gianluca Di Marzio who also suggests that Tim Leiweke may call in his old friend, David Beckham, to try and make the deal a reality.  The offer comes after Gilardino's agent was in Toronto this weekend for the match against the Montreal Impact to meet with at least one of the clubs.  The Impact have also been linked to Gilardino in recent months but the kind of offer that TFC have reportedly made might just be to rich for their taste.

The report suggests that Jermain Defoe would be the club's backup plan since there would be no way of bringing the England attacker over before next summer.  With Gilardino there is some chance that he would be able to arrive sooner should Genoa accept the offer and allow for a complete transfer in January.  In that case though it would mean convincing Gilardino to give up his hopes of making Italy's World Cup roster however slim they might be at this point.