Reported Everton and Tottenham Hotspur target Diego Rossi has enhanced his personal trophy haul by winning the MLS player of the year award, as reported by the Los Angeles FC official website.
When The Telegraph reported in June the 23-year-old Uruguayan could be on his way to the Premier League before the end of the summer, those links with Spurs and Everton were met with bemusement.
After all, while Rossi was making a name for himself in the land of ‘soccer’, he was far from a household name on the other side of the Atlantic.
And, after watching Miguel Almiron run down blind alley after blind alley at Newcastle United, understandable suspicion surrounded the potential arrival of another MLS-based prospect on English shores.
But Rossi shouldn’t be written off just because he’s plying his trade in a land where football teams are referred to as ‘franchises’ rather than ‘clubs’.
The numbers speak for themselves – 18 goals in 26 games during the 2020 season, enough to earn the Montevideo-born forward the Golden Boot. That’s not bad when you consider Rossi is more of a winger than a classic centre-forward.
Tottenham and Everton eye Diego Rossi
Now the skilful South American will have to find a place on his mantelpiece for yet another gilded accolade.
“I will continue to do my best to try to continue improving,” Rossi said after being named MLS player of the year, taking home a trophy previously won by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thierry Henry, David Beckham and all-American superstar Landon Donovan.
“It is something one dreams of since childhood, it is a very great (source of) pride for any Uruguayan. It is something very nice.”
According to The Telegraph, it may take just £10 million to lure Rossi from the MLS.
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