TORONTO – Toronto FC head coach Ryan Nelsen on Wednesday shot down the possibility that the club is after English-born Turkish international Colin Kazim-Richards (above), saying there’s no truth to recent rumors of a deal in the works.
Kazim-Richards, 27, hails from London but has played internationally for Turkey due to his mother's nationality. A winger who has played in the English Premier League as well as in Greece, he’s currently with Turkish side Bursapor, and he has appeared for Turkey 35 times since 2007.
“I think he’s a player there that’s kind of fallen out with one of his clubs,” Nelsen said. “I speak to Colin – I speak to a lot of players over in Europe – but he’s not our player, and we can’t bring him in anyway because the transfer window’s pretty much done [Tuesday], isn’t it?
“Would I love Colin on my team? Of course, I’d love Colin,” Nelsen said. “He’s a great player. Unfortunately he’s going through contract issues at the moment and until that gets resolved we can’t even think about it.”
A report out of Turkey first linked Kazim-Richards to Toronto FC, and there was good reason to think something was brewing. Nelsen and Kazim-Richards have both played for Blackburn Rovers, and the TFC coach brought in defender Bradley Orr in from the club on loan earlier this year.
“I think they put him, me and Brad Orr probably all together and linked it all up,” Nelsen said of the rumors, “but there’s no truth to it.”
