AP, Toronto :
Jozy Altidore and Michael Bradley grew up less than 50 miles apart in northern New Jersey, playing alongside each other on U.S. national youth teams.
Now veterans of two World Cups each, the duo has been reunited as teammates with Toronto in Major League Soccer.
“Canada, who would have thought it, huh?” Altidore said with a laugh Friday when introduced as Toronto’s newest designated player. “That’s the thing about life, you never know what you’re going to get the next day.”
Toronto confirmed the acquisition of the forward from Sunderland of England’s Premier League and agreed to transfer English forward Jermain Defoe to the Black Cats, one year after obtaining him from Tottenham.
Altidore said Bradley, the midfielder who joined Toronto along with Defoe in January 2014, was a “huge” part of his decision to sign with Toronto.
“We started at the youth national team together at 16, 17 years old,” Altidore said. “Every level we ascended to, we did it together. We were always close, always pushing each other from a young age. He was huge in this whole thing.
“Michael’s an honest guy, he’s always been honest with me,” Altidore added. “He told me from the start ‘Jozy, you will quickly see that this place, they have the same desire that we do, to get better and to kind of make a statement.’ That’s what we’re all about in terms of growing and taking the game to a new height in North America. This is the perfect place to do that. There is no better place to do that.”
The 25-year-old Altidore played in MLS with the New York Red Bulls from 2006-08 before heading to Spain’s Villarreal for a transfer fee of about $10 million. He failed to establish himself as a regular, spent time on loan at Xerez, Hull and Bursaspor before he was sold to the Netherlands’ AZ Alkmaar.
He set the record for goals by an American in a European club season with 31 for AZ in 2012-13, then went to Sunderland. He had just one goal in 40 league appearances with the Black Cats.
“The time at Sunderland was a difficult one for a lot of reasons,” Altidore said. “A lot of things went on behind the scenes that made it very tough to get off the ground there.”
Toronto coach Greg Vanney, a former U.S. national player, said he’s confident Altidore’s scoring drought won’t continue in MLS.
