Marked for Raheem Edwards
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Charlotte Football Club ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.10, and nobody on the pitch better.
Market24 Aug 2026
Kobe Franklin hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Toronto FC can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Aug 2026
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Toronto FC can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Toronto FC, 2‑1 the final word against Nashville SC in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Richie Laryea did the work nobody counts — 7.79
11 combined actions and 7.79. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Theo Corbeanu, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match12 Aug 2026
A 2‑1 win over Real Salt Lake, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Nelson Palacio pops up at the right end — 7.89
7.89, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Market17 Aug 2026
Raheem Edwards has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Toronto FC they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market17 Aug 2026
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Deandre Kerr reports back to Toronto FC with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Raheem Edwards has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Benjamín Kuscevic was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Toronto FC asked and Philadelphia Union said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad3 Aug 2026
344 appearances across 13 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Lewis Morgan and Toronto FC agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Niklas Dorsch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market3 Aug 2026
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A mark of 7.73, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match1 Aug 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Djordje Mihailović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.