TORONTO – Danny Dichio is one of the few people to have been a part of Toronto FC for all 10 seasons of the club's existence, but he is arguably still best remembered by Reds fans for what he did in the first.
For those unfamiliar, the Englishman famously scored the first goal in TFC history on May 12, 2007, in the 24th minute against the Chicago Fire (above), setting off celebrations at BMO Field that were punctuated by the raucous fans tossing their promotional seat cushions on the field. To this day, Toronto fans commemorate the occasion by singing his name in the 24th minute of every game.
“It means a hell of a lot me,” he told MLSsoccer.com of the now-legendary goal. “And not just to me, but to the club as well and to our fans. When you look back, it was such a momentous day for us. It wasn’t a great season for us in all, but I think it was the day that we kind of put our club on the map.”
It is no surprise to hear that Dichio remembers the moment vividly, even as the 10th anniversary of that historic goal approaches.
“I really go back to that day – it could’ve been anyone, it really could’ve been anyone,” he said. “I was in the right place at the right time when Edson Buddle squared the ball back to me and I bundled it in. It wasn’t a fantastic goal but it was a real meaningful goal that I was so happy I scored. Looking back on it now, it seems years ago because of where we are now in the present day.”
When Dichio says it could’ve been anyone, he wasn’t just leaning an old platitude. For all his efforts on the field as a player and now on the training pitch as an academy coach, as well as his cult hero status with TFC fans, it was only a twist of fate that brought him to Toronto.
As he recounted, Dichio – who has an American wife – had originally been invited to join the Fire, of all teams, for the 2007 preseason. But when Chicago learned that was not yet a US green card holder and would thus take up an international roster spot, the wheels were set in motion for him to land with Toronto.
“Things happen for a reason,” Dichio said. “If that situation didn’t happen, I wouldn’t have had this experience: the love of Toronto fans, the love of the city, and a great place to bring my family.”
Dichio would go on to play two more seasons with Toronto before hanging up his cleats in September 2009. But the London-born forward – a journeyman during most of his career in Europe – had no intention of leaving Toronto, where his family had begun to settle.
“[My retirement] was kind of off the cuff, I wasn’t planning for it, but the club had come to me and said, ‘Look, we want you to be part of the club for a long, long time. We know you’re interested in coaching and getting your coaching badges, but we also have to move a spot on the roster,’” Dichio recalled. “So I went home, thought about it – this was a place we’d really settled as a family, so we didn’t want to just jump up and move to another city.”
Though he first worked as an assistant to the first team in 2010, Dichio soon expressed the desire to work coaching the club’s academy, which was which fielding two teams at the time. Nowadays, the academy consists of nine teams from the USL PDL level all the way down to Under-11s. Dichio currently coaches in the Academy’s ‘Pod 1’ training group, which is typically the last stop Academy players make before they sign with the first team or Toronto FC II.
Now in his seventh year as a TFC coach, Dichio has played a part in the formation of some of Canada and TFC's most promising players, including Jonathan Osorio, Ashtone Morgan and Doneil Henry. Osorio and Morgan are two of the six Homegrown Players on Toronto’s roster, while Henry made the move overseas and currently plays in Denmark.
Dichio is rightfully proud of what he has accomplished in his 10 years with Toronto, but as special as the first goal in team history, the fans who sing his name, and the city that has made him one of its own are to him, there is still one thing missing.
“For us as a club it means everything [to win MLS Cup]. For all the years that we’ve been through and all the heartache,” he said. “Even [at] the final whistle against Montreal, there was a lot of emotion in the stadium. There was a little tear in my eye as well. We had finally done it. [It’s still] a little bit surreal now … If we pick up – when we pick up that cup on Saturday night, there’s going to be no one more happy than me.”
Calen Carr contributed to the reporting on this article.
