TORONTO — Jayden Nelson and Ralph Priso, two young Canadians deemed surplus to requirements by Toronto FC, return to BMO Field on Saturday as members of the Vancouver Whitecaps.
With the Whitecaps (4-1-0) atop the Western Conference and Toronto (0-4-1) second-from-last in the East, both will likely arrive with a smile on their face.
"Before I left for Europe, TFC was all I knew," said Nelson, who was 12 when he joined Toronto's academy. "So now actually going back, not playing in red and white, is definitely going to be a weird. But I'm just so excited and I definitely want to beat them."
"I left the club as a young player, very raw, I'd say," added the 22-year-old from nearby Brampton. "Now I'm coming back with more experiences and just more tools under my belt. I just want to show them kind of what they missed out on. But at the same time it's all love because that's the team that gave me the opportunity and that's the team that gave me the chance."
Priso, 22, is also excited to return.
"Toronto's home for me," said Priso. "It'll be nice to play in front of friends and family again. I haven't actually played against TFC ever so it will be the first time. It will be fun. I'm excited."
Asked how his game has grown since leaving Toronto, Priso cited learning "there's more than one way to play football."
"Especially in Toronto, when I was coming up it was kind of all one way from the academy to the first team. So leaving there kind of opened my eyes on different ways to play, different ways to win."
Nelson and Priso are examples of young talent developed by Toronto, now benefiting others.
Toronto sent Priso to Colorado in February 2022, along with US$1.025 million in general allocation money, a 2023 international roster slot and a first-round pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft in exchange for Canadian midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye.
Kaye, a former member of the TFC academy himself who left the club to find his own way, was subsequently traded to New England after making 30 appearances for TFC in all competitions.
Toronto sold Nelson to Norway's Rosenborg BK in February 2023 after 50 first-team appearances across all competitions. Vancouver acquired him in January in a transfer from Rosenborg, where he scored eight goals and added nine assists in 44 appearances.
Nelson says playing in Europe was always on his radar — and still is. He also knew he had to move on from Toronto to advance his career.
"I'll speak for a lot of young guys that came through the ranks in Toronto," said Nelson.
"Toronto has so much money and they're always going to buy a player in your position," he added. "That's one of the reasons I left as well, because I really needed to get minutes. It's hard to get minutes at Toronto with Toronto being such a big club. You could say a lot of us were mishandled due to that, which sucks. But at the end of the day, everyone has their own pathway and I think TFC tried to do their best developing us."
Priso has a slightly different take on his time in Toronto.
"Mine was a little bit different. I understand that coming from Jayden's point of view, especially with a team like Toronto with so much money and so much expectation. They're always going to bring in guys who play in those front two positions."
Priso, a midfielder, said he learned from "good players" like Michael Bradley, Mark Delgado, Alejandro Pozuelo and current captain Jonathan Osorio in Toronto.
"It was good for me. From his point of view, I think he probably didn't play as much as he wanted to," Priso said. "My experience was a little bit different. I probably got a little bit more opportunity than him. That's kind of how football goes. Different people have different opportunities at different times You just have to make the most of them."
Time at TFC was special for Priso who grew up watching the team and had to "fight my way" into the academy at the age of 14.
Toronto general manager Jason Hernandez has acknowledged the team could have handled young talent better in the past.
Winger Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty now wears CF Montreal colours after Toronto sold him in August for up to US$1.3 million in general allocation money, plus a sell-on percentage of a future permanent transfer.
Now 20, Marshall-Rutty was 15 when he signed a homegrown player contract in January 2020, becoming the youngest player in Toronto franchise history to sign for the first team. While he went on to make 83 appearances across all competitions for Toronto, he never really found a home in the lineup.
TFC opted to sell Marshall-Rutty, whose path to playing time was blocked behind Federico Bernardeschi and Richie Laryea, rather than lose him for nothing at the end of his contract.
Hernandez called it an "institutional failure."
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2025.
Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
