Juventus playmaker Sebastian Giovinco has signed a contract to join Toronto FC, according to reports in Canada.
Giovinco, 27, will join Toronto FC on a four-year contract worth $7 million a year, according to TSN, though the timing of the move remains unclear.
Toronto FC plans to announce Giovinco's new deal next week, the reports say. If the contract figure is accurate, Giovinco would become the second-highest paid player in Major League Soccer behind Orlando City's Kaka.
Toronto FC will make a major player signing announcement at 1 PM ET. Tune in here: http://t.co/N73ertWxtU #TFCLive pic.twitter.com/9LaInIyYQj
- Toronto FC (@torontofc) January 19, 2015
The 5-foot, 5-inch Giovinco, who can play a variety of attacking positions, has found it difficult to break into the first team at Juventus this season, where he must compete with the likes Carlos Tevez, Fernando Llorente and Alvaro Morata.
He has started just two Serie A games under Massimiliano Allegri, while also appearing as a substitute in four more league games and three Champions League matches. He scored twice in Juve's Coppa Italia match on Thursday.
However, Giovinco has made regular appearances for the Italian national team since Antonio Conte took over as coach after the World Cup. He started in Italy's most recent friendly, against Albania in November.
The move comes just days after Toronto FC signed another Designated Player, U.S. international striker Jozy Altidore. Together with midfielder Michael Bradley and Brazilian striker Gilberto, the addition of Giovinco would bring the number of Toronto's DPs to four, meaning the club would have to release one -- most likely Gilberto -- if the league's new collective bargaining agreement does not increase the number of DPs per team.
TSN reported that Toronto will pay Juventus a "multi-million dollar transfer fee." The 27-year-old would be available on a free transfer once his Juventus contract expires this summer, but by moving now the MLS club would fend off competition from other interested parties in Europe.
But Allegri as recently as Thursday said, "Giovinco has never been up for sale. There's always plenty of talk, but he's never expressed a desire to leave."
Giovinco would be a game-changing addition for MLS, a league where many foreign stars such as the incoming Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard are mostly past their primes and retired from international football.
But the "Atomic Ant" had options to join sizable clubs in Europe. In November, Giovinco had been linked to Italian powers Napoli and Fiorentina, with Premier League clubs also said to be interested.
"Right now, they are just suggestions by the media and Sebastian is relaxed about it all," his agent Andrea D'Amico told RAI television last year. "When he does get to play, he always shows what he is capable of.
"At the moment, we can only talk to Juventus, but in future we will see what the clubs from abroad have in mind."
Before this season, Giovinco scored 23 times in 70 appearances during a two-season loan spell at Parma. The Turin native began his career with Juventus in 2006.