CREDIT: STANDARD.CO.UK
English international Jermaine Defoe will join Toronto FC at the end of February.

This week I'm turning away from my usual England focus to take a look at some big moves happening a bit closer to home.

Toronto FC, founded in 2007, was Major League Soccer's first expansion team when it was decided that the league was to follow suit with North America's other major leagues and move the competition into Canada. Early on in its life, TFC made a name for itself by having the most passionate fanbase in the league, selling out the newly built 20,000 capacity BMO field for every home game in their first two seasons. Unfortunately, fan support was unable to translate into on-field results, and the team saw an indifferent start to its existence continue into perennial underachievement, failing to make the playoffs in each season and more than once being the last placed overall team.

Eight head coaches and three chairmen have come and gone in an effort to turn around Toronto's fortunes but to no avail, as fans have been forced to watch as their team have been out-performed by two younger Canadian teams in Montreal and Vancouver and have witnessed a parade of players that were heralded as the future of the club. Julian de Guzman, Robert Earnshaw and Danny Koevermans are just three players who started brightly only to fall well below expectations once pulling on a red jersey. Only former German international and TFC captain Torsten Frings lived up to expectations, only for age and injury to force him into retirement midseason.

Considering the history, one would understand the cautious optimism that fans felt when Toronto announced a deal that is not only the biggest in club history, but represents the biggest deal in the MLS since David Beckham arrived in Los Angeles. England international striker Jermaine Defoe (31) and United States international midfielder Michael Bradley (26) were both signed by the club in a deal that will be worth over $100 million over the next five years, and as the advertising campaign read, is a “bloody big deal.'

Defoe and Bradley, arriving from Tottenham Hotspur in England and A.S. Roma in Italy, represent not only a massive boost to the international profile of Toronto FC, but a significant statement of intent to the rest of the league that they are serious about this season. So far the strategy has worked; the rest of the league has had to sit up and take notice of a team that now boasts star power to rival the bright lights of New York and L.A., any remaining season tickets have been selling at a rapid rate and there is a buzz around the team that hasn't been felt since the early years, when the team was young and the fans were hopeful. Hopefully, this will be the year where Toronto FC finally proves itself.