Well, it’s finally happening. Lorenzo Insigne is destined to be a Toronto FC player with an average reported salary of $15m per season. This is one of the biggest signings in league history, rivalling the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Carlos Vela, Andrea Pirlo, and the numerous other European stars that have come to MLS from Europe near the end of their careers.
This one feels a bit different than those though because this is a player who’s directly coming off of being a key player for the team that won the Euros, is 30 years old, leaving a Serie A title-contending team, and is a player who’s still in the prime of his career. For only being 5’4″, Insigne is going to have a massive impact on MLS as a whole.
Before we dive into the positives, I think as fans we need to keep our expectations in check a little bit. There are numerous examples of big-name European players who have earned a final big contract in MLS and then not really tried when they came to the league.
Some recent examples are two former Serie A players on Inter Miami in Gonzalo Higuain and Blaise Matuidi. Do I think Insigne will be the next one of those players? Probably not because of the massive amounts of incentives that he could earn, but it’s a real possibility and I fear that TFC fans might be getting too ahead of themselves expecting him to come in and be the best player in the league without a shadow of a doubt.
MLS is a different beast than Europe, and not everyone can adapt to the style of play, rigorous travelling, or being so far from home. So it’s far from a guarantee that Insigne will be a world-beater here. It’s more than likely, but it’s not a guarantee and we as fans need to keep that in mind.
Lorenzo Insigne is an incredibly talented player who is the captain of Napoli and has vast experience playing at the highest level of Europe, but he’s never had to travel from Toronto to Salt Lake City and then to Montreal within a week, not to mention all of those flights being commercial flights and not on a private jet.
That’s a big adjustment for anyone to make, so while I’m confident that he’ll be one of the best players MLS has ever seen, I’m still tempering my expectations about him as a player in MLS. We can all remember the “Bloody Big Deal” of Jermaine Defoe coming to TFC, and he struggled here before being sold back to England in the deal that would bring Jozy Altidore back to MLS.
So, now that I’ve awakened every pessimistic bone inside your body about the Insigne signing, let’s make you unworried (if that’s a word, if not I hope to pull an Insigne and have a worded added to the dictionary). Lorenzo Insigne is coming to Toronto FC after captaining Napoli to (as of the writing of this article) a potential top-three finish in the Serie A and the knockout stage of the Europa League.
Diving into some of his stats, this season, he’s scored four goals and five assists in 15 matches while adding another goal and assist in three Europa League matches. That’s 0.61 expected goal contributions per game this season in two of the highest levels of soccer in the world. Currently, he is tied for sixth in Serie A for assists and 35th in Serie A for goals. It is important to note that this season is hardly over, so those stats will definitely change.
Last season he scored 19 goals with seven assists in 35 games in Serie A. That was good for seventh in the league for goals and 19th in assists. That was on top of the two goals he scored for Italy in the Euro and three assists in the Europa League. Throughout his career, he has bagged goals and assists having scored 173 goals and 108 assists in all competitions throughout his career.
The even more notable statistic from Insigne, however, is how well he’s able to stay on the field. Based on my math, during his entire career in Serie A, he has missed 29 league games. 15 of those missed games came because of a cruciate ligament rupture in 2014/2015, the rest of his injuries were pretty minor and required short stints out of action.
For added context, Insigne has played 320 league games in Serie A in his career. For a team that’s struggled with injuries in recent years, having a player who’s able to stay on the field is very valuable and should not be overlooked.
Clearly, this is a very worthwhile risk for TFC to make. Insigne is an unbelievable player who’s shown the ability and dependability to stay healthy. Not to mention the fact that he’s performed at the highest level for close to a decade. He’s a former captain who’s a proven goalscorer and world-renowned player who will bring eyes to the team and league.
While there is an inherent risk with this acquisition due to the gargantuan cost, it’s a worthy one due to how the contract is structured and the quality of player that TFC is adding. This move is going to require subsequent moves in order to make the Toronto roster compliant once Insigne joins the team, but for now, this is a move that fans should get excited about… just not too excited because, as we saw with Defoe, things can always not go according to plan.
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