The TFC Brampton Connection Grows

Doniel Henry was the first member of the “TFC Brampton Connection”, but not the last. Today, TFC announced that they had extended Brampton raised Ayo Akinola’s contract by an additional 3 years as part of the Major League Soccer’s U22 Initiative.

Akinola is just one of many Brampton soccer players, like Doniel Henry, Jonathan Osorio, Nicholas Lindsey and Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty to wear Toronto red and play in front of 20,000+ supporters, many of whom grew up in the same soccer rich suburb.

Perhaps Toronto FC should consider following the Canadian Men’s National Team lead and start fielding more Brampton players like Akinola. During recent World Cup qualifying matches it wasn’t uncommon to see Canada’s roster filled with up to 7 Brampton soccer players. Hutchinson, Larin, Osorio, Millar, Henry, Hoillet, Buchanan… Akinola hasn’t been amongst the squad during qualifying due to a ruptured ACL during the 2021 Gold Cup. Now that he’s training again and could find himself as an integral part of TFC’s rebuild, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that the Canadian Men’s National roster could have as many as 8 Brampton born/raised players.

“Over the last few years, watching Ayo grow as a player and a person has been extremely gratifying to the many staff who have worked with him along our player pathway. We have seen glimpses the last two seasons of just how impactful Ayo can be and it’s exciting to think of what’s still to come for him as a TFC player.”

Bill Manning, Toronto FC President – via torontofc.com