Scouting Report: Who is Toronto FC’s newest signing Kevin Silva?

BRAMPTON, Canada—Last Friday, Toronto FC announced that they signed promising young goalkeeper Kevin Silva to a first team contract following an impressive 2019 campaign with Toronto FC II.

The 22-year-old shot-stopper originally joined The Young Reds on loan from Heart of Midlothian FC Reserves, a move that was made permanent on January 19. He impressed over his eight appearances for TFC II, picking up a pair of clean sheets and leading the club in saves (30), denying over 70 per cent of the shots he faced.

He came up huge at times for TFC II in 2019, sometimes keeping them in games. This impressive double-save against Forward Madison for example, kept the game scoreless, and Toronto would take the lead moments later.

Big saves were a regular occurrence in 2019 for Silva, who was nominated for Save of the Week on multiple occasions.

Silva is also very vocal in net with the ability to communicate with his side like no other goalkeeper I’ve watched in person. It definitely helped that games were at the relatively quiet BMO Training Ground instead of a packed stadium, but Silva was loud for all 90 minutes, communicating with everyone from his defenders to the strikers at the opposite end of the pitch. The leadership qualities he tends to demonstrate is quite impressive for a young up-and-coming goalkeeper.

He’s a Gamer

Not only impressive on the pitch, Silva is also clutch on the virtual automotive pitch, as shown by his recent performance in the USL eCup: a tournament among USL League One players in Rocket League, a car-soccer hybrid video game.

Silva was TFC II’s representative and made a huge save against Evan Slabicki, the representative for Philadelphia Union II.

While he has “hung up the controller”, Silva hopefully has a long career left ahead of him on the pitch, and might even get the chance to do so in Orlando during the MLS Is Back tournament in Orlando, but probably not.

He’s the third goalkeeper on the roster, so he’ll likely not see any action, but he’s down in Florida should he be called upon. If not, Toronto FC will be able to catch him in action if/when he re-joins TFC II.