Ayo Akinola

[Shway]

46 minutes ago, narduch said:

Not even training with TFC anymore as they look to move him out

I can't say I didn't see this coming, especially with his salary charge to the cap. 

His mobility is limited, and he's not quick or fast.

CPL is beckoning. 

[Obinna]

2 minutes ago, Shway said:

I can't say I didn't see this coming, especially with his salary charge to the cap. 

His mobility is limited, and he's not quick or fast.

CPL is beckoning. 

The problem with CPL is there is nowhere to go from there if you are Akinola. Sure, he could play the rest at that level and make 50-60K a season, but what then? Live off the couple of 600k seasons he's had at Toronto for this rest of his life?

If he can do it, I think going overseas is a better option, even if the money is the same. As you say, his mobility is limited, but that doesn't mean he can't learn to be a different kind of forward. To do so, a smaller European league could may be necessary. Learn how to use your brain and rack up the goals to the point you can take a step up the ladder, then repeat. 

There isn't really a ladder yet coming out of the CPL. You have to be super young and shine and then go abroad. He's not super young anymore at 24 years old.

[El Diego]

I said before in this thread kind of half joking, but also half serious, that he is not even at CPL level. It would be a lifestyle changing pay cut for him as well. I don't know where he goes from here, I am not sure if a buy out is possible, but why would Ayo willingly leave TFC unless he gets a pay out?

[Big_M]

his contract is ending anyways so hes getting paid in full no matter what and hes out by january at the latest...question is between now and the end of the season do they loan him or waive him

[narduch]

27 minutes ago, El Diego said:

I said before in this thread kind of half joking, but also half serious, that he is not even at CPL level. It would be a lifestyle changing pay cut for him as well. I don't know where he goes from here, I am not sure if a buy out is possible, but why would Ayo willingly leave TFC unless he gets a pay out?

I'm thinking the same thing. He is not even good enough for CPL.

Have a feeling he will just retire.

[dyslexic nam]

For me it is all about whether or not he accepts that he is not the same player he was during his brief explosion of goal production, and that he needs to reset his work ethic if he doesn't want to derail his playing career.  Knee injury or not, there is no excuse for being slow and low-effort as a professional soccer player - especially in an attacking position.  Over the years I have probably told my youth teams that "soccer is a running man's game" about 100 times, and that most definitely doesn't ease up as you move into the elite levels.  Nothing I have seen from him in the last year or two suggests that simply dropping down a level will help him get back on track.  There is a more fundamental issue here IMO. 

Ayo needs to figure out whether or not he wants to put in the work required to have a sustained career as a pro player.  

 

[Atlantic]

I'm guessing he's just going to be waiting around for the summer transfer window to open for most of Europe. I don't think any CPL team could afford the salary he's going to want and he literally could not go anywhere else (until the summer).

[Obinna]

13 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

For me it is all about whether or not he accepts that he is not the same player he was during his brief explosion of goal production, and that he needs to reset his work ethic if he doesn't want to derail his playing career.  Knee injury or not, there is no excuse for being slow and low-effort as a professional soccer player - especially in an attacking position.  Over the years I have probably told my youth teams that "soccer is a running man's game" about 100 times, and that most definitely doesn't ease up as you move into the elite levels.  Nothing I have seen from him in the last year or two suggests that simply dropping down a level will help him get back on track.  There is a more fundamental issue here IMO. 

Ayo needs to figure out whether or not he wants to put in the work required to have a sustained career as a pro player.  

 

While running is obviously a core part of the game, I don't think his mobility is so poor as to prevent him from being a professional footballer. The question is does he have the brain and the (as you are getting at) mindset to hit the reset button and embrace his new reality? Just as you haven't seen anything to suggest that dropping a few levels will help, I haven't seen anything about his attitude suggesting he is unwilling or unable to adjust. Maybe it just takes time. 

As you know, the game slows down when you drop a few levels. My hope is that playing a few levels down will help him learn to read the game and learn to exploit gaps to score his goals. There may be a physical limit with his running and mobility, but there shouldn't be a limit on his brain. 

As he gets better at learning to read the game to score more goals, his chances to move up the soccer ladder should naturally come, but again there is no ladder worth speaking of coming from the CPL, which was my point earlier. That's why I want to see him try a small European league, doesn't really matter what country, but somewhere that his goals will get him noticed. Don't really want to see him getting lost in the German or English pyramids. Let him go to a small pond and be a big fish.  

[saladroit]

it's joever 

[jonovision]

I don't really understand why he would agree to this, unless he will receive the lion's share of this year's salary.

[Big_M]

hes getting paid and toronto gets another open slot...good for both

[anthony7]

4 hours ago, saladroit said:

it's joever 

I’m actually a little bit sad. The intent was there. He came back fit & took the #9 shirt. But when he stepped on the field it was like he was going through the motions. It’s just sad especially after his words when he decided to represent Canada. Then that injury while playing for Canada comes and essentially ends his career entirely. Just a sad story all around because he is a good person.

Edited May 4 by anthony7

[Dominic94]

He just hasn’t been the same since the injury, I think he needs to find a lower level and build back up. Someone will sign him, but not in MLS.

[nolando]

9 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

He just hasn’t been the same since the injury, I think he needs to find a lower level and build back up. Someone will sign him, but not in MLS.

So USL? York? Finland? What are his actual options, I wonder?

[dyslexic nam]

I know I have been critical and I don’t want to shit on a guy that chose us, but I am going to call bullshit on the idea that his issues are down to the injury.  Lots of guys suffer serious ACL injuries and come back from them.  Hell, I know it is essentially beer league soccer but I absolutely wrecked my knee and managed to come back and play harder than I ever did after the injury.  You can do it if you put on the work.   And he has clearly recovered.  The issue isn’t a lingering injury - it is the level of effort.   And that isn’t something I am willing to attribute to the injury that’s happened a few years ago.  

[Dominic94]

15 minutes ago, nolando said:

So USL? York? Finland? What are his actual options, I wonder?

Would think overseas, maybe even mls on a cheap roster spot.

 

it’s not like he doesn’t have a decent resume and don’t forget other teams made something of TFC cast offs.

[anthony7]

1 hour ago, dyslexic nam said:

I know I have been critical and I don’t want to shit on a guy that chose us, but I am going to call bullshit on the idea that his issues are down to the injury.  Lots of guys suffer serious ACL injuries and come back from them.  Hell, I know it is essentially beer league soccer but I absolutely wrecked my knee and managed to come back and play harder than I ever did after the injury.  You can do it if you put on the work.   And he has clearly recovered.  The issue isn’t a lingering injury - it is the level of effort.   And that isn’t something I am willing to attribute to the injury that’s happened a few years ago.  

I disagree. Watch Eden Hazard’s interview with John Obi Mikel. When Hazard’s ankle was destroyed, he couldn’t bounce back. This was mainly attributed to the fact that he wasn’t allowed to have a medical assistant to rehab correctly due to COVID restrictions. The main thing that he said is that he could never reach that top speed needed in training ever again. It didn’t matter how hard he tried. This is why he was never picked to play again. Thus, triggering a mutual termination of his contract in his final year just like Ayo. What I’m trying to say is that everyone responds differently to career ending injuries. It is not necessarily your weight or mentality that determines your success of coming back from these setbacks.

Edited May 4 by anthony7

[Ally McCoist]

He'll find more success as a club promoter than a football player tbh. Wish him well.

[K Edgar]

9 hours ago, dyslexic nam said:

Lots of guys suffer serious ACL injuries and come back from them.

Unfortunately not all come back.

[BearcatSA]

31 minutes ago, K Edgar said:

Unfortunately not all come back.

True, but why would a club give a player that rich a deal if it felt the injury was potentially that debilitating?  Their medical advisors signed off on it (or maybe didn't:  we don't know the back story here).

Many players come back effectively from ACLs and meniscus repairs but for whatever reasons he isn't one of them and the TFC chapter of career is now over.  I wish him better luck in his next stop.

[Dominic94]

11 hours ago, anthony7 said:

I disagree. Watch Eden Hazard’s interview with John Obi Mikel. When Hazard’s ankle was destroyed, he couldn’t bounce back. This was mainly attributed to the fact that he wasn’t allowed to have a medical assistant to rehab correctly due to COVID restrictions. The main thing that he said is that he could never reach that top speed needed in training ever again. It didn’t matter how hard he tried. This is why he was never picked to play again. Thus, triggering a mutual termination of his contract in his final year just like Ayo. What I’m trying to say is that everyone responds differently to career ending injuries. It is not necessarily your weight or mentality that determines your success of coming back from these setbacks.

I agree with this.

 

ACL injuries take up to 2 years to recover from and it’s a really brutal process. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him but I’m over year into mine and I’m still a ways off and that top speed issue is very real.

[BearcatSA]

38 minutes ago, Dominic94 said:

I agree with this.

 

ACL injuries take up to 2 years to recover from and it’s a really brutal process. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him but I’m over year into mine and I’m still a ways off and that top speed issue is very real.

I have had two of them, one when I was 33 (with a meniscus repair) and a second on my other knee at 49, both injured during matches.  The first one's recovery protocol was much more difficult but the rehab on the second (2014) was better (no meniscus involved) and the therapy and time line for recovery was much quicker and I am playing masters league with no lingering issues in either knee.  Maybe I was just lucky but with Akinola I go back to the point that if there were serious concerns about his recovery, I don't think they'd be re-signing him to those contract terms.

[FC_Hali]

I imagine his next move will be USL. He’ll earn more than CPL and I’m not sure Europe is a realistic option.

[YorkRegionFan]

TFC and Akinola officially agree to terminate his contract.  Best of luck to Ayo and hopefully he can get his career on track elsewhere.

[GasPed]

The entire situation is no good.  Either he has worked his butt off for the past 2.5 years and it's just not working out, or he hasn't worked his butt off and for some reason can't find it within himself to do it.  So it's an incurable physical deficit or an incurable (probably) mental issue.  Either way, it's sad.