Gonzalez's deal involves targeted allocation money TAM. Mavinga's existing contract expires at the end of the season. The new deal adds three years. Both involve TAM, a mechanism that — in part — helps provide salary cap relief for elite players whose pay exceeds the league's maximum budget charge but who do not hold down designated players spots. The French-born Congolese international, who joined Toronto in January , had teased the new deal in a Jan.
Coach Greg Vanney, a former elite defender himself, has called him the team's "safety blanket. Mavinga's soccer journey took him from France to England, Belgium and Russia before finding a home in Canada.
Mavinga, whose father is Congolese, started in the Paris Saint-Germain system at 14, working his way up to train with the first team at But a coaching change blocked his path so, rather than return to the reserves, he left for Liverpool at 18 — spurning an offer from Arsenal. He did well in the Liverpool reserves and, playing alongside Antoine Griezmann, Alexandre Lacazette and Francis Coquelin, helped France win the under European title in After manager Rafa Benitez left Liverpool, he was loaned to Belgium's Genk and found himself making headlines for all the wrong reasons in in a title-deciding game in the season finale.
Chasing a high-bouncing ball down the flank, he went to kick it while Standard Liege's Mehdi Carcela-Gonzalez bent down to try to get his head to it. Mavinga's boot caught Carcela-Gonzalez flush in the face. The Moroccan, who was knocked out on the play, suffered facial fractures and a concussion.
Genk went on to win the game — and the title. While his teammates celebrated, Mavinga cried. In , he moved to Russia in an ill-fated big-money move to Rubin Kazan. The team changed coaches and eventually loaned him to France's Reims and Troyes. Returning to Russia, he went six months without a game and told his agent he wanted "something different. His arrival was anything but smooth, however. He was sick when he arrived in training camp and found himself going back and forth to France to be with his pregnant partner.
