Could acquiring Djordje Mihailovic jumpstart a new era for Toronto FC?

---

Toronto FC looks set to take a big step forward this week, as they’re reportedly on the verge of acquiring Colorado Rapids attacking midfielder Djordje Mihailovic for a hefty transfer fee, ​per Tom Bogert.  

💣🇺🇸 BREAKING: Toronto FC have agreed a deal to acquire American attacker Djordje Mihailovic from the Colorado Rapids, per sources

Deal is $8m cash trade + $1m add-ons + sell-on %

Rapids rejected 2 bids then Mihailovic asked club for the TFC move https://t.co/yhMLsHRqfG

— Tom Bogert (@tombogert) August 4, 2025

Just over a month after officially kickstarting a new era, as they mutually terminated the contracts of their high-paid Italians, Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi, this move is a big sign of intent for TFC, who want to return to the heights they hit in the mid to late 2010s. 

Fittingly, this Mihailovic move seems reminiscent of some of the transfers they made in that era. Of course, most will remember the star of Toronto FC’s 2017 treble-winning team as Sebastian Giovinco, but they would’ve never won without the contributions of their two other Designated Players, Michael Bradley and Jozy Altidore. 

Much like Altidore and Bradley, who arrived in Toronto at the ages of 25 and 26, respectively, Mihailovic would come right in the prime of his career at 26. Plus, like Altidore and Bradley, he comes with experience playing in MLS and Europe, as well as for the US Men’s National Team - and as a bonus, he’s also familiar with Canada, having spent two seasons with CF Montréal between 2021 and 2022.

Yet, that’s why Toronto are willing to reportedly pay $8 million for his services, plus $1 million in add-ons (while including a sell-on clause for the Rapids), as they feel that Mihailovic could be a transformative acquisition for their team. 

Djordje Mihailovic was dealing out there last night, delivering 3 assists. 🅰️🅰️🅰️ pic.twitter.com/5dw86bUUaB

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) July 13, 2025

Just for context, that $8 million fee, which would be the fourth-most TFC ever paid for a player (behind Alejandro Pozuelo, Bradley and Jermain Defoe), is the highest fee the Rapids will have ever received for one of their players, eclipsing the $7.7 million they got from OGC Nice for CanMNT centre back Moïse Bombito last summer (although that deal has $3 million in add-ons and sees the Rapids retain a sell-on fee) - this is no small chunk of change that Toronto FC are investing in Mihailovic. 

What that shows, however, is that this deal is not without risk. On paper, there’s a lot to like about the deal, but this is still an ambitious acquisition from a team still feeling the remnants of an era where they swung big and struck out hard. 

At the same time, the floor appears to be much higher on this deal than it was with some of the transfers they’ve made in recent years.

Firstly, there’s the fact that Mihailovic has proven to be a consistent producer in MLS, no matter where he’s been. With the Chicago Fire, where he made his debut as an 18-year-old homegrown player in 2017, he had seven goals and 12 assists in 76 appearances, peaking with a two-goal, seven-assist campaign in 2020.

After that, CF Montréal saw enough in him to send a hefty amount of GAM Chicago’s way, and he scored 16 goals and added 21 assists in 68 appearances with Montréal, scoring four goals and adding 14 assists in 2021 before adding 12 goals and seven assists in 2022. Off the back of that, Dutch Eredivisie side AK Alkmaar came calling, bringing him in for a fee of up to $6 million when including add-ons.  

He unfortunately had a season and a half to forget in the Netherlands, scoring just two goals and adding two assists across 36 appearances while playing barely over 1000 minutes, but the Rapids decided to bring him back at the beginning of 2024 for a fee of around $3 million. 

Certainly, that has proven to be a shrewd decision from the Rapids, as he’s scored 23 goals and added 18 assists in 63 appearances, including 12 goals and 10 assists in 2024, along with 11 goals and eight assists so far in 2025, immediately becoming one of the best attackers in MLS upon his return. He has depended a fair bit on penalties in this latest stint, scoring 10 of them in Colorado after scoring just one in his career before this stint, but has more than made up for it with his chance creation. 

Just to get an idea of why Toronto targeted him, their current goals leader (in all competitions) is Theo Corbeanu with six, and their leading assister is also Corbeanu with three (he’s tied with both Insigne and Bernardeschi in that category, ironically enough), as they’d love nothing more for a player who could flirt with 10 goals and 10 assists in a season, as Mihailovic has consistently done in MLS over the last half-decade (showing why it isn't as much of a worry to see him rack up penalty goals). 

The goal that clinched victory in the Rocky Mountain Cup for the @ColoradoRapids. ⛰️

Djordje Mihailovic's game-winner is the Energy Moment of the Matchday pres. by @CelsiusOfficial. 🔋 pic.twitter.com/VKR9ZIW6p7

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 19, 2025

Further to that point, since 2019, when Toronto had three goalscorers with 10 or more goals en route to a surprise MLS Cup appearance (Alejandro Pozuelo, Jozy Altidore and Nick DeLeon), they’ve had just four players hit that mark in Pozuelo (2020), Jesús Jimenéz (2022), Jonathan Osorio (2022) and Prince Owusu (2022), and haven’t had a player pick up 10 assists since Pozuelo had 10 in that 2019 campaign. 

Because of that, one can see why they’d be eager to add a player in Mihailovic who has had three 10-goal campaigns and two 10-assist campaigns in MLS, as he brings the sort of final-third impact they’ve been lacking in recent years, Bernardeschi’s nine-goal and eight-assist campaign from last year aside. 

Free kick perfection from Djordje Mihailovic! 🎯

📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/msDfZQVJEc pic.twitter.com/7ETeNb6AXQ

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 30, 2024

Just look at Mihailovic’s numbers from this year, which help paint a picture of what he could bring to the table at his new club. When diving deeper into his output, he’s got 0.31 xG and 0.31 xA per 90 minutes across all competitions, scoring 0.35 goals and adding 0.29 assists per 90, doing a good job of turning his strong expected numbers into actual numbers, even if he's slightly juiced those goal totals with penalties. 

Then, when looking at his all-around offensive impact, he’s also averaging 1.8 shots, 2.3 dribbles (at a 66.2% clip), 1.91 key passes, 2.68 touches in the box, 1.48 progressive runs, 4.59 passes to the final third (at a 69.2% clip) and 3.6 passes to the box (at a 55.9% clip), showing that he’s a true balanced offensive threat (all #s via WyScout).

He’s struggled a bit more in MLS play this year, as the Rapids have gone from a team that comfortably made the playoffs to one on the fringes of the postseason race, meaning his MLS numbers have dropped slightly. Because of that, he’s gone from a player who was in the top 10 to 15% in most attacking categories among MLS attacking midfielders, to sitting closer to the 70th-75th percentile, which is still good, but not as lethal as he was last year.

Here are his MLS numbers from 2024 (in red) and 2025 (in blue). As seen here, he was one of the top creators in MLS last season, and is still among the best. Where he'll want to take a big step forward is to be a bit more of a goal-threat from open play again, as he's been in past seasons (FBRef). 

At the same time, that he’s still sitting with 11 goals and eight assists while having a bit of a down year just further shows why Toronto are interested in bringing him in, along with the impressive underlying numbers, as they’ll hope to push him back to the level he showed in 2024, if not to bigger heights. 

For a TFC team dead-last in MLS in xG per 90 with 0.95 in 2025 (via FBRef), he’ll bring some sorely needed offence to that table, as that 0.62 xG+xA per 90 he’s provided across all competitions would still provide a pretty big jolt to this team, even if those numbers regress slightly as he adjusts to a new team. Plus, all of that ball progression he’s done is also pretty important, given that TFC are also last in MLS in shots per 90 and passes into the box, as he'll do a lot of heavy-lifting in that department when seeing TFC's inability to get the ball into the box. 

As a result, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him essentially be given the keys to this Toronto attack, bringing a much-needed dual-attacking threat to a team that is sorely looking for any sort of offensive production. 

Djordje weaves his way through the defense from midfield to put the Rapids ahead in Portland 😤#PORvCOL |@MLS pic.twitter.com/0ixqFfDOKc

— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 29, 2025

Of course, the big worry here for TFC is that Mihailovic won’t be able to reproduce his output in a Toronto team lacking attacking options.

Despite being on a Rapids team that’s been pretty middling in terms of xG and actual goals in 2025, Mihailovic has still at least had Rafael Navarro to set up, as the Brazilian striker is up to 11 goals in all competitions this year, after scoring 17 times in 2024. Then, at Montréal, he had Romell Quioto, who had 16 goals in 2022 and nine in 2021, along with Kei Kamara and the nine goals he scored in 2022, showing that he’s typically done his best work when he’s had a striker to play off of. 

Who could that striker be at Toronto FC, where their current forwards, Ola Brynhildsen and DeAndre Kerr, have just two goals apiece, across all competitions?

They’ll hope the 22-year-old Kerr, who had eight goals in 2024 (but scored five of those against League 1 Ontario side CS Saint-Laurent), could benefit from Mihailovic’s arrival, but that’s no guarantee. 

Yet, this is a good reminder that while this Mihailovic is a strong one in isolation, it can only be effective if TFC can build a strong team around their new attacking midfielder. That’ll involve figuring out who their striker is, which could be a logical new purchase for them to make as they look to fill their DP spots, as well as bringing in some other support pieces, with Corbeanu being a good example of what that can look like. 

Then, of course, they’ll want to find some balance in the rest of their roster, although they’ve taken some good strides forward defensively under new head coach Robin Fraser in 2025, something they’ll want to keep building on. 

Is Djordje Mihailovic the right fit for #TFClive? 👀

▶️ https://t.co/qUZhtVXzga pic.twitter.com/m5V2Os1pP4

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) August 5, 2025

With Mihailovic’s age, however, they’ve got a bit of a better timeline to work with than the one they had when Insigne and Bernaredeschi were in town, as they arrived in their late 20s and early 30s, pushing them to maximize the mileage they had left in their gas tank.  At the same time, they’ll hope to make the most of Mihailovic’s prime years of 27, 28 and 29, even if he’ll expect to be productive into his 30s, so they’ll want to start putting the pieces together around him as soon as possible. 

For the first time in a while, though, a move like this suggests that they’re looking down the road instead of immediately in front of them, and that’s not a bad thing given the impact that short-term thinking has had on their team the last few years. 

Now, they’ll need to ensure that Mihailovic’s arrival is well supported by some other new signings, allowing him to hit the heights he can (and will need) to hit to make this deal a success, but it’s certainly a good first step to take. 

This might not be the flashy signing that they’ve been used to making, but it’s a very functional one, and in a changing MLS where building a solid team is proving to be more important than acquiring big stars, TFC will hope that Mihailovic’s arrival can be the catalyst for a new era of this team, one where moves like this can push them back to past levels.