Preki unveiled as new Toronto FC coach

Toronto FC have announced the appointment of Predrag ‘Preki’ Radosavlijevic as its new head coach.

The Yugoslavian-born former USA international has filled the vacancy left by Chris Cummins who took over from John Carver during the season.

Preki left his role as coach of Los Angeles-based Chivas USA to become Toronto’s fourth coach in the past four seasons and Reds director of soccer Mo Johnston is excited he has installed his former Everton teammate as the man to lead the club.

“As a coach, he is going to bring stability, discipline, and his work ethic,” said Johnston.

“He is so passionate, he was like that as a player. I know the character. I know the man. He is driven, and he is driven by success, and that is what this organization needs.''

Preki admits he liked what he saw from Toronto fans over the years he was coach at Chivas and plans to make the club a successful one.

“Three years ago, when I sit here (at BMO Field), when I see the passion from the fans, I knew this was the place for me, for sure," Preki said.

"This is a winning place. We got to turn this place into something special, and I don't know how long that is going to take. But I am going to tell you this is going to be a hard, hard, four months for us, because there will be a lot of eye-opening downstairs in the locker-room, lot of hard work, lot of commitment from all of us.

“Things will be different, how different, you just have to wait and see . . . I can't promise you that we are going to win tomorrow but we are going to win soon, because we are going to have a committed group on the field.''