Who we Were (Part 8): Jackson

On December 9, 2013, FC Dallas traded Jackson Henrique Gonçalves Pereira (also known as simply ‘Jackson’) to Toronto FC in exchange for an undisclosed amount of allocation money, and a conditional second round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft. He had played with FC Dallas from 2010 to 2013, but they decided that he was not needed for their team. For Toronto FC, he was signed for a bit more energy in the box, and creativity to go along with some of the DP players to come.

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In his first season with the Reds, in 2014, he scored four goals and got one assist in MLS, in 1842 minutes, averaging a goal every 460.5 minutes. Despite his lack of goals, he seemed to score crucial ones when Toronto FC needed them, and seemed to put his full effort forward with his pacey runs into the box and up the wings. I believe that the basic statistics with Jackson do not really sum up his contribution to the the team. He actually seemed to be one of the more positive signings for the 2014 season, and seemed like he might become a bit of a mainstay in the years to come.

In 2015, he survived TFC’s massive rebuild over the winter. However, he did not proceed to play very well over the course of the season. He only got one goal and one assist throughout the whole season, playing 1374 minutes, and was played even more in the right wing-back position, which he did not really know how to play in 2015. The only reason he really was experimented in this position was because of a growing amount of injuries but also the fact that TFC had one of the most leaky defences in the league, despite having such a great attack.

His days were numbered in MLS, and at the end of the season, his option was declined by the Toronto FC front office. He was not selected in the 2015 MLS Re-Entry Draft, and therefore was released at the end of the season.

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Overall, I think his career was moderately successful at BMO Field despite his lack of performances in 2015, considering that he came in during very weird circumstances for Toronto FC. He played two seasons with Toronto FC, and he played with two very different rosters, with different managerial philosophies and such. He actually played quite well from the right wing, it’s just that his form would decline dramatically whenever the manager would try to unsuccessfully put a player who has a real lack of defensive skills into a position that needs them.

After Jackson’s career with Toronto FC, he went on to Atlético Itapemirim, a Brazilian club who plays in Brazil’s Serie D league. He only played there in 2016, until he later moved on to play for 2017 NASL expansion franchise San Francisco Deltas in their inaugural season. He only played there for a year as well, as his contract expired then. Currently aged 30, he is out of contract.

Jackson’s career with Toronto FC was pretty brief, and somewhat successful; but ever since then, his career has declined a lot. Can you think of any former TFC players whose career greatly declined after they left the Reds?