5 key players who have to step up for Toronto FC in 2026
Several returning players for TFC will have huge responsibilities resting on their shoulders during the 2026 MLS season.
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Toronto FC will need all hands on deck this year if it's going to rebound from a lacklustre 2025 season that saw it finish 12th in the Eastern Conference and fail to make the playoffs for a fifth consecutive campaign.
Newcomers Walker Zimmerman, Emilio Aristizábal and Matheus Pereira will be expected to give a much-needed boost to TFC.
But it's not only the new faces on the roster who will be responsible for helping to lift up Toronto. Several returning players will also have huge responsibilities resting on their shoulders.
Here are five players who need to step up in a very big way for Toronto FC in 2026.
Jonathan Osorio
Osorio was in a very reflective mood at the end of last year, his 13th for TFC.
“It was a tough season for myself, especially the beginning part. I think I didn't do a good job of balancing trying to lead this team, helping others, helping the ones around me, and then also still focusing on myself and making sure that I'm performing,” Osorio admitted.
Toronto's captain was sidelined by injury issues at times during a 2025 season that saw him bag four goals and register three assists. Seven goal contributions in MLS weren’t bad by his standards and was more than he had in each of the previous two seasons. But it was well off the pace of the 15 he had in 2022 or his career-best 17 in 2018. It also wasn’t good enough from a captain who needed to provide much more to a team that was still finding its way under first-year coach Robin Fraser.
Osorio ended the campaign in a decent run of form with two goals and two assists in his final eight appearances, and he will be looking to build upon that this year as he tries to better balance the responsibilities of being the captain with producing on the pitch.
John Molinaro
José Cifuentes
Two days after announcing the transfer of Deybi Flores last August, Toronto brought in Cifuentes as its new starting central midfielder on a loan deal from Scottish club Rangers. But he only played in seven games (six starts) totalling 490 minutes, collecting one assist along the way, as fitness issues prevented him from seeing more action. This year is going to be massive for the Ecuadorian as he'll have a full season ahead of him and much more will be expected. TFC has the option to sign him on a permanent basis once the loan deal is over in June. For that to happen, Cifuentes will have to duplicate the form he showed during his previous MLS stint when he had 15 goals and 20 assists in 121 appearances across all competitions for LAFC from 2020 to 2023.
Henry Wingo
Much was expected of Henry Wingo when he signed a free agent deal with TFC in the summer of 2024. The American defender was coming off a successful stint with Budapest-based club Ferencvárosi and was eager to make a splash in MLS after a previous lacklustre tenure with his hometown Seattle Sounders. But it hasn’t worked out for Wingo in his return to MLS, as a series of nagging injuries have limited him to just 10 league appearances (454 minutes) with TFC. An ongoing quadriceps issue limited Wingo to six MLS games last year before he was put on the season-ending injury list in late July. Wingo, 30, finally returned for the Reds when he saw action off the bench in a pre-season game last week. Toronto needs him to stay healthy in order to help stabilize a back line that will be missing three starters from last year following the off-season departures of Kevin Long, Sigurd Rosted and Raoul Petretta.
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Deandre Kerr
We’ve been waiting a long time for Kerr to finally break out. But this has to be the make-or-break campaign for the 23-year-old forward who had his contract option for 2026 picked up by the club at the end of last season. Kerr bagged four goals in MLS last year and has scored 15 goals and tallied two assists in 95 league appearances since making his debut in 2022. Those are pretty modest numbers for a player who was once touted as one of the club’s brightest prospects. He’s never proven to be a consistent scorer during his time with the Reds, his goals coming in spurts here and there. It’s high time that he starts living up to his potential, especially if he wants to earn a new deal with TFC – his existing contract expires at the end of the 2026 campaign.
Derrick Etienne Jr
Etienne, 29, made 25 MLS appearances in 2025, two more than the previous year, but he only made 10 starts (down from 19) and logged a very modest 983 minutes (down from 1,654). In total, he has just five goals and seven assists in 55 games in all competitions since joining Toronto in April 2024 via a trade with Atlanta United FC. Despite his lack of offensive production, the club signed him to a new one-year deal last month after originally declining its option on the Haitian international. Etienne’s best days in MLS came with the Columbus Crew where he scored 12 goals and tallied 14 assists in 90 games across three campaigns. He hasn't come close to duplicating that form since arriving in Toronto. Now more than ever, the Reds need Etienne to start producing on the attacking end.
(Top photo by Kelvin Kuo/Imagn Images)
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