Toronto FC debuted in 2007, but their road to Saturday's MLS Cup against the Seattle Sounders (8 pm ET; FOX, UniMas in the US, TSN1/3/4/5, RDS in Canada) didn't really begin until a little less than three years ago.
It was then, in January 2014, that TFC announced to the league that their days as a doormat were done. After signing Brazilian forward Gilberto to a Designated Player contract in December 2013, Toronto announced on consecutive days in January that they'd landed Michael Bradley and Jermain Defoe.
Memorably marketed as "A Bloody Big Deal," the moves were a statement of intent from Toronto. They put the rest of the league on notice. No matter what it took, no matter how much money they had to spend, Toronto were determined to become one of MLS's biggest clubs.
Of course, the 2014 season didn't quite live up to the hype. Gilberto largely flopped and Defoe, despite some solid production, grew unhappy. TFC ended up firing head coach Ryan Nelsen and missing the playoffs and shipped their DP strikers out following the season.
At the time, many observers billed Defoe and Gilberto as failures in Toronto. It's a fair point of view. Just don't expect TFC GM Tim Bezbatchenko to subscribe to it. Bezbatchenko, who joined TFC in September 2013, learned from the experience, flipping Defoe to Sunderland in exchange for Jozy Altidore in January 2015 and using the mistakes they made with the Englishman as valuable experience in their successful pursuit of Sebastian Giovinco, the man most responsible for TFC's 2015 playoff berth and their appearance in MLS Cup this weekend.
"I don't cringe," Bezbatchenko said on Monday's edition of ExtraTime Radio when asked how he feels when he hears the phrase ‘Bloody Big Deal.' "First of all, it was the most brilliant marketing campaign I've ever seen in sports in terms of trumping something up and getting people's attention. That's what marketing is about, right?
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LISTEN: Toronto FC general manager Tim Bezbatchenko explains why the salary cap is even trickier than you think and how he went about putting the pieces together after getting the job in late 2013.
"Obviously, the most important thing is to deliver on that and perhaps you can make a case that it didn't, but at the end of the day it allowed us to acquire Jozy Altidore and I would say… what I learned from it, what we learned as a club from Jermain has really allowed us to get Giovinco. I don't think, without Jermaine Defoe, that we would've had the wherewithal and the knowledge to court and acquire and be successful with Sebastian Giovinco."
Bezbatchenko cited a couple of specific stumbling blocks TFC had in their experience with Defoe that have helped them with Giovinco, who has 39 goals and 31 assists in 61 regular season games in Toronto. Mostly, he spoke about TFC doing their best to be honest and upfront with the Italian about some of the challenges he'd face in MLS, and what their expectations would be for him as he made his way in the league from Juventus.
"Going, meeting a player, meeting his family, speaking with the club [about] what to say, what not to say, when to say it, I think it all helped in piquing [Giovinco's] interest," Bezbatchenko said. "Communicating the differences that our league brings compared to a Juventus, compared to a Serie A, our travel, what Toronto is and really speaking with the players.
"The big difference with Jermaine was, rather than selling it hard, you have to meet in the middle. I had to explain to Seba all the challenges he was going to face and how we can only go so far to help you. You have to really want to be a part of this project, building this league. As we like to say, it's more of a crusade than an adventure and I think that was one of the main differences in how it sort of manifested itself leading up to the signing in early 2015."
Signing Defoe and Gilberto might not have worked as planned, but Bezbatchenko thinks the moves set Toronto up for where they are today.
And if the Reds can lift MLS Cup in front of a sold-out BMO Field on Saturday? Well that'd be a bloody big deal, indeed.
