Sam Cronin

It was pretty much a dream season for rookie Sam Cronin. After a solid pre-season, the midfielder earned himself a start in the team’s first game of 2009.. From there, things only improved for the Wake Forest product. Cronin went on to start 26 of the team’s 30 regular season matchups. Three times during the season at BMO Field he was named the “Man of the Match” – the most of any other player on the team. A testament to his solid play, he was noticed by U.S. National Team head coach Bob Bradley and was named to the roster of their CONCACAF Gold Cup squad.

2009: Started 26 of 27 games played logging 2,363 minutes, for third best on the team…scored first professional goal on 06/13/09 against the New York Red Bulls in a 2-1 victory at BMO Field…added 4 assists, and only accumulated 2 cautions…named Man of the Match in games 04/11/09 (FC Dallas), 05/02/09 (Columbus Crew) and 05/16/09 (Chicago Fire)… Nutrilite Canadian Championship: Featured in all but one game of the tournament, did not play 05/06/09 against Vancouver.

College: 2008: Appeared in 24 games…scoring 10 goals and 4 assists…Named Hermann Trophy finalist…was named NSCAA First Team All-American as well as Soccer American First Team MVP…College Soccer News named him to First Team All-American…was First Team All-ACC and named captain…2007: Started all 26 games he appeared in scoring 3 goals and adding 8 assists…named NSCAA Second Team All-American, Soccer America First Team MVP…NSCAA First Team All-South, ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American and team captain…2006: Started 25 of 25 games he appeared in scoring 4 goals and added 4 assists…named NSCAA Second Team All-South, ACC All-Tournament, and team MVP…2005: Started 23 of 23 games he appeared in…added 3 assists in his rookie season and was named ACC All-Freshman Team…

Other: Attended Mount Tabor High School…was 2003 NSCAA Youth adidas All-American…attended Greensboro Soccer Club in his youth.

Personal: Son of Barry and Laurie, and has four siblings – McNeil, Colin, Hugh, and Grace…lists his favourite Reality TV show as “Survivor”…the best meal Sam cooks is chicken parmesan…if he wasn’t a soccer player, he’d be a golfer…the player he’d most like to face in a game is Zinedine Zidane…If he were an actor he’d be Mark Walhberg…his favourite sport other than soccer is tennis…enjoys watch the NFL and NBA…favourite vacation spot is the Bahamas…names the Red Hot Chili Peppers as his favourite group….and says the best thing about Toronto is the summertime.