Preki may be in negotiations to coach Toronto FC
Former teammate of TFC general manager Johnston quit his job this week
Last Updated: Sunday, November 15, 2009 | 3:31 PM ET
By Malcolm Kelly CBC Sports
Preki Radosavljevic, Major League Soccer's only two-time Most Valuable Player, may be the next coach of Toronto FC, reports say. (Nick Ut/Associated Press) Experienced MLS coach and former star player Preki Radosavljevic may be in line to take over as bench boss with Toronto FC.
Insiders say the former Chivas USA bench boss is in preliminary negotiations with Toronto general manager Mo Johnston, who played with the man simply known as Preki on two occasions.
A former coach of the year and the only man to win two league MVP awards as a player, Preki left Chivas this week after losing to the Los Angeles Galaxy in the playoffs.
"In my time here I have grown as a coach and I am proud of our accomplishments," Preki told the Los Angeles Times on Thursday. "I will always have good memories of my time with Chivas USA."
In three seasons he was 40-29-21 in the regular season and 0-3-3 in the playoffs.
Speculation out of L.A. was that Preki, a Serbian native, might rejoin U.S. national coach Bob Bradley, for whom he served as an assistant with Chivas USA.
But moving to Toronto is a story that does seem to have legs, say league insiders, because of the coach's long relationship with Johnston, who saw Chris Cummins leave the head coach job after the season and said he was looking for someone new with league experience.
Preki, who was an American international and played in the 1998 World Cup, was with Johnston at Everton in the early days of the English Premiership and then with Kansas City of Major League Soccer.
Johnston was not available for comment this weekend because he's being inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in Glasgow.
