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TFC sign Doneil Henry to long term contract


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Hot off the press:

http://www.torontofc.ca/news/2012/08/henry-here-stay

Toronto FC announced Tuesday that the club has re-signed defender Doneil Henry. As per team and league policies, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“This is another positive step for our football club, signing another promising young defender for the long term,” said Head Coach and Director of Soccer Operations Paul Mariner. “Doneil possess a great amount of skill and the scary part is he is only 19 years old. He has proven to be an important part of our club and will continue to be for years to come.”

Henry, 19, was the first Academy player to sign a professional contract with the First Team when he signed on August 26, 2010 and is currently in his third season with Toronto FC. To date, Henry has made 28 MLS appearances, starting in 17 with one goal. He scored his first league goal this season on Saturday, April 28 at Real Salt Lake....

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Positive move by TFC, I really like Henry, couple years and he'll be making a case for the Top 18 for the MNT. A long term deal is good for Henry to stay here rather than go abroad, I could see him getting a loan spell aboard though maybe at some point depending on the who they add at CB over the next 6-8 months.

Henry getting minutes is the most important thing for him, he can only get better by playing now, just like RT. (who's finally getting his chance at minutes for WFC)

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It's great that TFC can sign Academy guys like Henry and Morgan to long term deals, as their signings show current and future academy players that there is opportunity on the first team when all is said and done. I'm curious to their salary, but I would imagine they will be appropriately paid.

Hope to see these two on TFC's backline for a while!

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It's great that TFC can sign Academy guys like Henry and Morgan to long term deals, as their signings show current and future academy players that there is opportunity on the first team when all is said and done. I'm curious to their salary, but I would imagine they will be appropriately paid.

Hope to see these two on TFC's backline for a while!

I don't know how legitamte this is, but here are the league salaries in May 2012 and Aug 2012.

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/May%2015,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

http://www.mlsplayers.org/files/August%201,%202012%20Salary%20Information%20-%20By%20Club.pdf

I am fairly sure Morgan signed his new deal before Aug 1st so his salary should be higher for in the August list. Indeed it is, but sadly only 56k rather than 45k. An improvement, but I was expecting something along the lines of 70-90k (and that is being conservative). I hope I have it wrong.

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I suspect any big jumps in salary wouldn't take place until next year.

I'll second this. I hope it's in the 100k+ range, as that will show the current Academy players that you can make a decent living if you make the first team as a regular starter out of the Academy.

Morgan and Henry's success and wealth are very critical to the appearance of the Academy to future players. If players can't make decent money coming out of the Academy, the team won't be able to recruit the best talent.

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I'll second this. I hope it's in the 100k+ range, as that will show the current Academy players that you can make a decent living if you make the first team as a regular starter out of the Academy.

Morgan and Henry's success and wealth are very critical to the appearance of the Academy to future players. If players can't make decent money coming out of the Academy, the team won't be able to recruit the best talent.

I don't think 50k is bad at all for a 19 year old in MLS. MLS isn't at the level of other leagues on this continent relative to their sport (NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB are all the top leagues for their respective sports obviously) MLS is a 3rd tier league imo (1st tier would be EPL, Spain etc., 2nd tier being Holland, Argentina, Mexico etc.). If Henry was a hockey player for instance he would be a good prospect but he would still be playing in the OHL where he would beg to make a 50k salary (players get peanuts, unless you're Patrick Kane). In Soccer terms Henry is a good prospect but he isn't a top prospect worldwide that would command a high salary comparative to major leagues over here.

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I think it's a nice thing, Keegan, that MLS is actually able to be considered a third tier league now. I agree with that assessment. Oddly though, some of the franchises are getting attendance numbers more like 2nd tier leagues...given that and proper marketing and branding over the next ten years, we may be able to expect MLS to make that jump to be as strong as Mexico. At least I hope so. Paper media still largely ignores footie, whether it be local Canadian papers, or Sports Illustrated in the US, as examples.

Aside from that, with the MLS as a league consistently improving, we'll need our players to continually get better to keep up. The strategies at club level to do so in Canada ARE in place (they are doing a great job with development, frankly, compared to the crap we had in the 90s), so it's not inconceivable that we'll have some pretty talented boys around whos names we don't even yet know; once we hit 2020 and beyond.

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