The Seattle Sounders' striker Sebastien Le Toux, 24, was the club's first player to be signed for the MLS franchise-in-waiting's roster for next year's jump to the top flight. He would also rather play for the U.S. national team than for his native France because, he told Jon Naito, "I would want to play for the country that gave me a chance, and I really love it here."
Le Toux was the United Soccer League's MVP last year as Seattle lifted the USL1 title, and has been in healthy scoring form again this season, with ten goals in 24 games. After a trial with FC Dallas lead only to the offer of a developmental contract, he was picked up by the Washington state side as a defender, but gradually moved up the field to where he's proven most dangerous. Now the only thing he misses about his home country are the bakeries, and he was not especially upset at France's dreadful performance at Euro 2008.
"Le Toux's gifts -- his intuitive understanding of spacing and timing, his high fitness level and his versatility -- were wasted on the backline," writes Naito. Le Toux said "it was not the position I would have chosen for myself. Every child growing up, they want to play up front, to score goals. I was not any different." And he sees the contract to play in MLS as "something I had hoped for, and wanted, for a long time. I could not be more happy with how everything has turned out." The striker wants to play in MLS "for a long, long time."
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