Josh Sargent's dad has already come to visit. Even before his son had officially put pen to paper on his big move to Toronto, Jeff Sargent had made the big trip. The flight from St. Louis to Toronto was easy, so why wouldn't he? This type of moment wouldn't come around often, and he wanted to be there for it. He wanted to be a part of the process that brought his son home.
"It's a two-hour flight," the striker tells GOAL with a smile as he reflects on his father's visit. "He's like, 'Wow, that is so much easier.' Family can pop up for the weekend or something. It's just a lot more accessible."
There's a word in that sentence that really explains it all: family. For weeks now, everyone has debated and discussed Sargent's big move to Toronto FC, which became official on Wednesday after serving as the game's worst-kept secret for several weeks. At the heart of it all, at the very core of this decision, was a return home. After eight years across the Atlantic Ocean, this decision was motivated by Sargent's desire to put his family first.
The version of Sargent that originally left home was just a kid. He was 18 at the time, and he would have left earlier if the rules had allowed it. Europe was calling, and Sargent had earned the call after emerging as one of the most talented prospects in American soccer.
The version of Sargent that returns to North America is something different: three kids, a wife, a new lease on life. The kid who left his family returns as a man with a family of his own, and it's that fact that drove his return more than anything else. There are other parts of it, of course: the sporting plan in Toronto, the weight that comes with being the team's star player, the chance to compete in a growing MLS for the very first time. When you add that, for the first time in his adult life, his kids can see their grandparents regularly, it all resulted in a choice that, to Sargent, was pretty clear-cut.
He knows that not everyone out there will understand that. He knows that there has been, and will be, criticism for it. That's fine with him. In the end, Sargent made his choice and, in these first few days of being in his new home of Toronto, he's already feeling the benefits of it.
"Everybody has their own reasons," he says. "It's nobody else's life. I don't know, but I feel like a lot of people have had their say on whether it's the right thing to do or this and that. Again, there are a lot of people out there, and you're not judging their lives for what they choose. I'm at a time where, over the last year or so, I've been thinking about coming back closer to home because I'm having more kids. It's been more and more attractive to me and my family.
"The opportunity with Toronto came up, and they seemed to have a clear plan and structure for what they want to do. Everything just sounded exciting to me, and it all lined up perfectly, so here we are."
