First Person View - Toronto FC Pays Tribute to Torsten Frings

    Toronto FC paid a unique tribute to their retired captain, Torsten Frings, on the occasion of their first home match of the season against Sporting KC a week or so ago.

    How this quiet little quirk managed to initially skip my attention, I’ll never know. It only dawned on me when the match in Montreal kicked off, standing there at the Big O – memory, it’s a strange thing.

    Here is the video from the start of the TFC match at the SkyDome (Rogers Centre) against Sporting KC.

    Did you see it?

    Jeremy Hall; booting the ball into touch on the left-side of the pitch; seemingly to no one.

    It rung familiar.

    For some reason - it was never discussed anywhere that I could see, though admittedly my German is pretty useless – it was a habit, or superstition, or good luck charm of Frings’.

    Here is the kickoff from Toronto’s match last August against Portland.

    It was the last time Frings began the match in such a fashion for TFC, though the video cuts off early.

    The German went on to play two further matches, against Kansas City and away to Columbus, but with the opposition taking the initial kickoff in both those contests, official video of the start of the second half is unavailable – further research shows that Frings indulged the fancy both times, though he failed to send the ball into touch each occasion.

    He didn’t always go to the left…

    And it didn’t always successfully leave the field of play.

    Perhaps, in some small way, his inability to regularly hit the ball well enough to secure this curiosity was a sign to himself that his days were coming to an end.

    But it was a habit, one I would love to know the full story behind, perhaps one day we’ll find out.

    Regardless, it was a fitting send off from the remaining TFC players, paying such homage to their retired captain, mere minutes after he had made his final appearance in front of the home fans ten days after announcing his playing days were done.


If you missed POV-FS’ personal send off for Torsten, it can be found here.