Former Tottenham, Sunderland and Birmingham City midfielder Teemu Tainio is the MLS signing of the season according to his New York Red Bulls coach Hans Backe.
The Finland international has been a key contributing factor to the Red Bulls' impressive start to the 2011 campaign which has them sitting at the top of the Eastern Conference table.
Backe feels that Tainio has slotted perfectly into the New York line-up and is delighted that he is at his club.
"I haven't seen every team in this league, but he must be the [signing] of the year so far as a midfield player," Backe said. "His distribution has been phenomenal."
Tainio's Red Bulls teammates Joel Lindpere and Dwayne De Rosario echoed their boss' sentiments when heaping praise on the 31-year old.
"Because we have many creative players on the top, we need someone holding and he's not the guy who comes up and is going to score the goal," Lindpere said. "It's not his job in this team. He takes the counterattacks, takes care of their attacking midfielders. I think he has experience, quality so he's the type of player we need when we have a lot of great and active players on the top."
De Rosario added: "Every game he's been solid for us, he reads the plays really well, breaks up a lot of plays and frees up our midfield. It's a position where you don't get a lot of recognition, but it's such a crucial role he has to play in terms of breaking up plays and building up our attack by finding me or finding our forwards and he's done that ever so well."
