Kevin Long set to complete move to MLS strugglers Toronto FC
NEW CHALLENGE AWAITS: Kevin Long of Birmingham City acknowledges the fans after the Sky Bet Championship match between Birmingham City and Queens Park Rangers. Pic: Cameron Smith, Getty Images
Kevin Long’s hunger for a daunting defensive challenge looks set to bring the Ireland international across the Atlantic for a move to troubled Major League Soccer outfit Toronto FC.
The 17-times capped centre-back is understood to be on the verge of leaving Championship side Birmingham City to join TFC with the indicating the Cork native will sign a deal in the coming days.
Long was omitted from the Birmingham City squad for Saturday’s victory over Sunderland having been unable to firmly force his way back into Tony Mowbray’s plans having initially been dropped by Wayne Rooney during his disastrous short spell at St. Andrew’s.
Long had brought his 13-year Burnley career to an end to originally join Birmingham last January and was a defensive rock as John Eustace guided the Blues to safety.
Now the 33-year-old, who featured in seven different Premier League campaigns at Turf Moor despite never cementing a place in the Burnley defence, is headed to Canada’s biggest city for what shapes to be another fire-fighting mission.
In spite of having the second-highest payroll in MLS last term, with only Lionel Messi and Inter Miami spending more, Toronto FC were an absolute rabble.
The Reds had spent hugely on Italian creative duo Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi but managed to finish rock bottom of the 29-team league, winning just four of 34 games.
Veteran coach Bob Bradley was belatedly dismissed with Toronto FC owners pulling off something of a coup by coaxing Englishman John Herdman from the Canadian national team despite the country being a host nation of the next World Cup.
Herdman took over at the tail end of the season but couldn’t stop the mortifying slide as Toronto lost 17 of their last 18 and kept just one clean sheet in 23 from May to late October.
The offseason has been dominated by reports of offloading Insigne and Bernardeschi, earning upwards of a combined $20m per year, but nothing materialized.
The discontent of TFC fans has only grown with the club unable to make any serious transfer moves until now and Herdman overseeing just one win and one clean sheet in four pre-season games.
Long won the last of his 17 Ireland caps in a 0-0 Nations League draw with Bulgaria in late 2020 under Stephen Kenny. His experience at the back could prove invaluable to Toronto and with their MLS campaign kicking off next Sunday, the club may well race to wrap up the deal in the next couple of days.
The former Cork City player could form an all-Cork(ish) central defensive pairing in Toronto with Shane O’Neill entering his third season here.
The son of All-Ireland winner Colm, Midleton-born O’Neill moved Stateside as a child and has forged a solid career spent mostly in MLS.
While he represented the U.S. at underage levels the 30-year-old remains eligible for Ireland.
Long would become just the second Ireland international to play for Toronto and first in over a decade since fellow central defender Darren O’Dea spent parts of two seasons in the city in 2012-13.
Ronnie O’Brien, once a starlet of Brian Kerr’s Ireland youth teams, is the only other Irishman to wear TFC colours.
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