It sometimes takes a decade, but a promising striker from earlier days in the Canadian Soccer League has finally hit the $1 million a year mark.
Jonathan Osorio, who started playing soccer in Brampton and Mississauga on the fringes of Toronto and was signed on a professional contract with the CSL’s SC Toronto in 2012 to be awarded the semi-pro league’s Rookie of the Year award while one of the league’s top scorers, has reached a milestone with an annual salary of $1,026,250 with his present club Toronto FC.
Osorio played 17 times for SC Toronto in 2012, helping his side finish third in the CSL first division to make the championship playoffs before being eliminated by Serbian White Eagles.
Doneil Henry, a talented centre-back with Toronto FC, who in 2009 and 2010 also took his first step into professional soccer in the CSL, is presently earning an annual salary with the Toronto MLS team of $403,000.
Seven Toronto FC players earn more than $1 million, including recent signing Lorenzo Insigne being the highest paid with an annual salary of close to $15 million. Insigne, who was signed from Napoli of the Italian Serie A, has a four-year contract to mid-2026. Toronto FC captain Michael Bradley is paid $1.5 million.
There are 11 players with Toronto FC in the information released by the MLS Players Association that were earning during the past season less than $100,000 annually.
Osorio is one of a procession of CSL players to reach a high level in Canada or other parts of the world, including midfielder Atiba Hutchinson who made a brief appearance for York Region Shooters of the CSL before being transferred to the Toronto Lynx of the U.S.-based A-League. Hutchinson was then signed by Oster of Sweden, is now captain of Besiktas of Turkey and captain of the Canadian World Cup team on its way to Qatar. He has made 97 national team appearances.
The list of CSL players having reached top flight soccer has grown since Hutchinson stepped on a ground in Scarborough for the York Region-based Shooters in 2002, and the list continues with one of the most recent been Israeli-born striker Fadi Salback who was transferred by FC Vorkuta (now Continentals FC) to FC Podiliava Khmelnytskyi of the Ukrainian Second Division.
Stan Adamson