Toronto FC (Finally) Sign Issey Nakajima-Farran

Issey? Issey? Yes, he is!  Finally Canadian winger Issey Nakajima-Farran is an official member of Toronto FC.   After spending part of the pre-season down in Florida with the team and back with the Reds training over the past few weeks it was clearly just a matter of time before it became official.

Nakajima-Farran (OK, can we all just agree on INF when not being punny?), fills an immediate need for TFC - not only due to Jackson's suspension, but because Toronto lacks wide players.  With our shiny new DPs the question of service has been raised more than once and while Alvaro Rey and Jackson have both been active in the mix, other options will be required to combat injury and loss of players to the World Cup and so forth.  Plus any good team has options; good options off their bench to call upon whenever the situation requires - that's not really been TFC's way so this makes for a continuing positive shift in direction.

Signing INF not only helps to keep raising the quality of the bench players, but adds to the CanCon on the team.  While not a requirement - and nor should it be TFC's focus - I am all for signing quality players; if they happen to be Canadian then so be it.  With this signing the Tims and Ryan Nelsen continue to show that they won't panic sign players regardless of the need, which is a welcome change in MO with the Reds.

Depending on how Nelsen sets up the midfield and the wings tomorrow (especially now with Osorio leaving training early today), there's a decent chance that Issey could see time in Utah - with Jeremy Hall still recovering from injury and Mark Bloom training in the midfield it's likely that Nelsen will need as many options as possible.  Regardless of the upcoming games, having INF on the team is a solid signing for Toronto and should be another building block for this season and those to come.