TORONTO — Toronto FC head coach Aron Winter has denied Dwayne De Rosario’s claim that he was forced out of the club.
"I’ve heard a lot of things about what Dwayne is saying, that he didn’t want to trade or whatever," the coach said following TFC’s 1-1 draw with Chivas USA here on Saturday. "But what I want to be clear to everybody is that we had a very good offer for the first three years, and he was not happy with that, and then he came to us to ask to be traded, and that’s the real story. We’ve made, I think, a good trade with him because we have opened up cap space to invest more to rebuild our team. And we have got two good players back. That was the reason. He is a good player but I’m always saying, if he wants to be part of the club, and nobody’s bigger than the club. He has made his own choice, and we have helped him."
Highlights: Toronto FC 1, Chivas USA 1
Winter reiterated that De Rosario demanded the trade, and that TFC would have been happy to have kept him on.
[inline_node:332623]“It looks like that TFC has not treated him well, and it’s not true," he said. "We have treated him well. And we’ve given him a good offer. At the end he was not happy because he wants to be a DP. We have tried everything to make him a DP, but at the end, no.
"It was like that at a certain moment, he was also not happy and he asked to be traded. And that’s the real story. And I’m not going to say bad things about it. He has made his own choice. It was his decision.”
Winter stressed that although De Rosario is a talented player, he is not irreplaceable.
“No one player is bigger than the club,” he said.
Maicon Santos replaced De Rosario in the role of club captain in the match against Chivas USA.
“Maicon is our captain,” Winter said. “We have two captains, one is Maicon and the other one is Stefan Frei. In the position where Maicon is playing in the midfield, he can reach more of the players. I think both of them can be a good captain, and I’ve made the choice for Maicon."
