Toronto FC already has a head coach with a big personality. Now it has a homegrown player to match.
Coach Mo Johnston and the expansion Major League Soccer team will introduce Canadian international Jim Brennan as its first player signing at a news conference Friday, two sources confirmed Thursday.
The 29-year-old from Newmarket, Ont., has won 43 caps for Canada, usually on the wing where he loves to rampage up and down. He can end those runs with a nifty cross or a shot at goal.
Brennan is second only to Paul Stalteri (with 51 caps) in experience among active Canadian internationals and probably leads the national team in tattoos.
A happy-go-lucky sort with a wicked edge, the six-foot 170-pounder has long been the Illustrated Man of the Canadian squad. On his back, his surname is written in Old English with his zodiac sign (Taurus) and the saying Keep The Faith. High on one shoulder is a Celtic design. On the other a Celtic dragon.
He has a good sense of humour and a sandpaper-like tongue that can tear strips off a reporter.
But Toronto FC will be looking for Brennan to use his personality to help sell the club as it prepares for its debut season next year.
A loyal servant to the Canadian international cause over the years, Brennan has been nicknamed The Move for his shifty style on the left wing.
His nickname came from former Canadian manager Holger Osieck at a Gold Cup.
``He kept on telling me `Go at the player, do the move and then go around him,''' Brennan explained in an interview with The Canadian Press in January 2002. ``These guys started calling me The Move after that.''
While Brennan was on the bench for Monday's 1-0 win over Jamaica, he was involved in both goals in Canada's last outing before that _ a 2-0 win in Austria. He scored the first and triggered the second when his shot slammed in off teammate Marco Reda. Brennan has six goals in all for Canada.
He has been without a club this season after most recently being with Southampton of the Football Championship, one level below the English top flight. He joined the Saints on a free transfer in January.
He also played for Bristol City. Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield and Norwich City in England.
Notts Forest paid 1.25 million pounds (C$2.6 million) for him in October 1999, a record for a Canadian at the time. While with Forrest, Brennan used to play ice hockey twice a week at the home of the Nottingham Panthers club team.
Norwich, which was promoted to the Premier League during his time there, was to have been his biggest showcase but he was hampered by injuries while with the Canaries.
Brennan joined Bristol City when he was 17 when former Canadian under-17 manager Tony Taylor, then an assistant manager with the club, brought him over. Within a week, Brennan scored the winning goal in a reserve match against Tottenham. Soon he had signed a 2{-year deal.
Osieck and Brennan both made their debut with the Canadian senior team in April 1999 in Belfast in a 1-1 tie with Northern Ireland. Osieck enjoyed Brennan on and off the field, using him in 33 of his 46 games as coach.
Brennan grew up supporting Glasgow Celtic and was a fan of Scottish midfielder John Collins and former Dutch midfielder Frank Rijkaard.
His grandfather was a boxer and hoped Brennan might follow suit
``That was never going to happen,'' he said.
His father, of Irish descent, played hockey and wanted his son to do the same.
But his mother, who has Scottish bloodlines, pushed soccer.
