Toronto FC are the franchise that gave Canada its soccer miracle — the 2017 treble, the greatest season in MLS history. Founded in 2006, they were terrible for nearly a decade: the losing seasons, the coaching carousel, the BMO Field faithful who showed up anyway. Then Tim Leiweke's Bloody Big Deal: Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, and Sebastian Giovinco — the Atomic Ant, the 2015 MVP — and everything changed.
The 2016 run to the MLS Cup final — lost on penalties to Seattle in the Toronto cold — was the heartbreak before the glory. The 2017 season was perfection: the treble (Supporters' Shield, Canadian Championship, MLS Cup), 69 points, Giovinco's magic, and the championship won at home. Toronto celebrated like the soccer nation it had become. The 2019 final return ended in defeat, but the peak was undeniable.
The years since have been the fall: the aging roster, the rebuilds, the struggle to recapture 2017. But the supporters' culture — the Red Patch Boys, the south end's wall of red — endures, and BMO Field on a big night remains one of the league's great atmospheres. Canada's team, the first Canadian MLS club, carries the nation's soccer hopes.
The post-Insigne Toronto FC (2024-present) are the league's fallen giant in reset: the 2024 40-point season (the playoff miss), the 2025 bottom — the Insigne-Bernardeschi era's end (the 2025 buyouts, the most expensive failure ever), the 2025 teardown the new direction. The 2017 treble (the Cup, the Shield, and the Canadian Championship — the greatest season ever, the Bradley-Altidore-Giovinco brilliance) is the franchise's history; the 2024-25 collapse the scar. BMO Field's Toronto crowd brings the 2017 memory and the Canadian patience: the 2017 roar, the belief that the next era is coming. The Canadian wars define the summer. What Toronto FC are now is a franchise in reset — the 2017 treble the memory, the 2025 bottom the floor, and the 2017 standard the goal. In Toronto, the 2017 magic is the fuel, and the next era starts with the checkbook closed and the kids.
What defines Toronto FC is the treble: one MLS Cup in 2017, won as part of the greatest season ever, by the team that proved Canadian soccer could conquer the continent. In Toronto, TFC are the standard — and the whole country is waiting for the second act.
