Toronto FC opts not to pick up the contract option on Sean Johnson and seven others

TORONTO — Toronto FC has declined the 2026 contract option on veteran goalkeeper Sean Johnson and seven others, clearing the deck for an off-season rebuild.

The MLS club also declined the options on defenders Kevin Long, Raoul Petretta and Sigurd Rosted, midfielder Nathaniel Edwards, and forwards Derrick Etienne Jr., Hugo Mbongue and Charlie Sharp. Toronto said it will “remain in conversation with select players” but did not elaborate.

TFC did exercise one-year contract options on defenders Kobe Franklin and Nicksoen Gomis, midfielders Malik Henry and Kosi Thompson and forwards Deandre Kerr and Jules-Anthony Vilsaint.

It also exercised the purchase option on Canadian forward Theo Corbeanu, who scored six goals for TFC this season on loan from Spain’s Granada CF, but not on midfielder Maxime Dominguez, whose loan spell from Brazil’s Vasco da Gama expires at the end of the year.

Toronto, which finished out of the playoffs for the fifth straight year at 6-14-14, has already said it is in the market for a marquee attacker in the off-season.

But help is needed everywhere.

“I don’t believe that there’s a portion of the field in which we shouldn’t be looking to strengthen and bolster,” GM Jason Hernandez said Tuesday at the club’s end-of-season media availability.

Toronto, which already had 14 players under contract for next season, now has 21 players signed for the 2026 campaign.

The 36-year-old Johnson was arguably Toronto’s best player this season, ranking fifth in the league with 111 saves and ninth with a 1.32 goals-against average. The 15-year veteran stood on his head in many games, prompting coach Robin Fraser to wonder out loud on several occasions why he was not back in U.S. colours.

But Johnson did not come cheap with a 2025 salary of $1,063,125 (all figures U.S.). And backup Luka Gavran, younger and cheaper at 25 and $128,475, is waiting in the wings.

Unless the club makes a move, the starting job appears to be Gavran’s.

Toronto perhaps indicated that when it chose Gavran, recently called into camp by Canada, rather than Johnson, to be one of the five players who met the media Tuesday.

With Atlanta United ‘keeper Brad Guzan announcing his retirement, Atlanta could be a destination for Johnson, a Georgia native

Petretta ($854,750), Rosted ($805,000) and Etienne ($745,566) were all big-ticket items. The 35-year-old Long ($468,521) was influential when healthy, but missed 10 games this season.

Sharp and Mbongue were sent out on loan to the USL Championship’s Tampa Bay Rowdies and the CPL’s Vancouver FC this season. Edwards mainly saw action with the reserve side.

The 14 returning players who already had guaranteed MLS contracts for 2026 are goalkeepers Adisa De Rosario and Gavran, defenders Stefan Kapor, Richie Laryea, Zane Monlouis, Adam Pearlman (currently on loan to the CPL’s Halifax Wanderers), Lazar Stefanovic and Henry Wingo, midfielders José Cifuentes, Markus Cimermancic, Alonso Coello, designated player Djordje Mihailovic, captain Jonathan Osorio and forward Cassius Mailula (on loan to Belgium’s KV Kortrijk).

Toronto FC Roster

Goalkeepers: Adisa De Rosario, Luka Gavran

Defenders: Nicksoen Gomis, Kobe Franklin, Stefan Kapor, Richie Laryea, Zane Monlouis, Adam Pearlman, Lazar Stefanovic, Kosi Thompson, Henry Wingo

Midfielders: José Cifuentes, Markus Cimermancic, Alonso Coello, Malik Henry, Djordje Mihailovic, Jonathan Osorio

Forwards: Theo Corbeanu, Deandre Kerr, Cassius Mailula, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2025