3rd Degree

June 26th, 2007 . By: JT Elliott

Juan Toja spent much of the Argentine summer wondering about his future.

Just a year earlier he had realized the dream of playing for River Plate, one of South America’s most storied clubs, and he seemingly owned the world. He began his tenure with appearances in five Copa Libertadores matches and netted a game-winning golazo during tournament play. Yet his performance wasn’t enough to secure him minutes with River’s first team.

The 22-year-old Colombian national soon found himself bored and frustrated with his lack of playing time. Conventional wisdom said he should stick it out at River a little longer, be patient until his time came and then make the most of it.

Toja didn’t want to wait. Soccer had been a part of his life since he was old enough to walk. Though the decision seemed crazy to some, Toja decided he would surrender the prestige of Club Atlético River Plate for a solid Sunday gig.

He made the decision in early January and soon after his telephone rang in Argentina. On the other end was FC Dallas assistant coach Oscar Pareja, a fellow Colombian whom Toja had watched play for the national team and Deportivo Cali as a young boy.

Pareja said he and head coach Steve Morrow had watched a DVD of Toja and liked what they saw.   They were offering him a spot with the Hoops, a chance to play every weekend and be a critical component to the team’s success.

The proposition scared Toja.  Would he be committing career suicide by jumping from world-renowned River Plate to the fledgling U.S. league? Did he want to give up his flat in Buenos Aires’ ultra-trendy Belgrano neighborhood for an apartment in Frisco, Texas?

In the end, Toja’s desire to play was greater than his fear of the unknown. He agreed to a one-year loan with FC Dallas and prepared to meet his new team in Brazil.

“In the beginning, I was afraid,” he says. “I didn’t know anything about MLS or Dallas. But I knew I wanted to play and that’s how they seduced me.”

Toja had no idea that his trip to Brazil would be the first leg of a crazy journey in which he would know instant success, win fans over and see his hair style analyzed on worldwide television.

“I never imagined it would be so good here,” he says. “I am so happy.”

In many ways, this is the moment Juan Toja has been waiting for since he was a schoolboy playing soccer on Bogotá fields. Even as a child, he believed being a professional footballer was his destiny.

His paternal grandfather and namesake, Juan Carlos Toja, had played professionally for Peñarol in his Uruguayan homeland, as well as Colombia’s Medellin and Cúcuta.

His maternal grandfather, Victor Vega, represented both Santa Fe, Millionarios and the Colombian national team. Both men were right-footed forwards in their prime.

As he played in Bogotá, Toja imitated his grandpas as best he could with his left foot. Everyone told him he had a gift, that he could be somebody. When he was a teenager, he proved himself worthy of their admiration.

He joined Santa Fe’s youth system at 16 and played for the club’s U-19 team for six months before jumping to the first team in early 2004. He played in 25 matches over the next two seasons.

In 2005, he was a member of Colombia’s U-20 side that won the South American championship. The same squad also competed in the FIFA World Youth Championship in Holland, where it was eliminated in the second round by Argentina.

Toja’s performance, however, was strong enough to draw interest from several clubs.  In January 2006, he was sent to River Plate, the Argentine powerhouse that millions of South American boys fantasize about representing.

“It was an incredible feeling,” Toja says. “You think about it when you are young, but you never know if it will happen. In River, I was given a chance to live a dream.”

Though he did not have the storybook ending he had hoped for in Argentina, Toja shows no outward signs of bitterness. He dismisses his lack of playing time as a rough patch in his career, a disappointment he cannot let fester for fear it will consume him.

“Soccer is like that sometimes,” he says, with a shrug in his voice. “Sometimes you have the opportunities and sometimes you don’t. Whether it’s you or the coach, it doesn’t matter. That’s how the game is sometimes.”

When he journeyed to Brazil for pre-season training with FC Dallas, Toja had no idea what to expect. He had never heard of anyone on

his new club, save for Pareja and Dario Sala, both of whom enjoyed successful tenures at Colombia’s Deportivo Cali when Toja was younger.

When Toja arrived he found immediate comfort in the team’s heavily Latino roster. The language barrier had been one of his greatest fears, but ultimately an unnecessary concern given Spanish is the native tongue of almost half the starters.

“It helped me adjust quickly,” Toja says. “The entire midfield speaks Spanish, so I was able to worry about my performance and not how I would tell them I wanted the ball. It made a big difference.”

His spirits were buoyed even further when he moved to Frisco and got his first tour of Pizza Hut Park. From the condition of the team’s practice field to the plasma televisions in the locker room, the entire complex amazed him.

“I played for River and I thought there were no better facilities,” he says. “But when I saw Pizza Hut Park, I knew I had been living in the Third World. In truth, the installations are beautiful and we should all be proud.”

Even before his MLS debut, Toja knew he had made the right decision. He liked his coaches, enjoyed his teammates and was pleasantly surprised at the level of play in the league. He had no idea, however, that the affection he felt for the club would be returned to him tenfold.

From his first match, Toja became both a fan and a media darling. With his wild mane of hair and his relentless energy, he drew attention and accolades he had not expected.

ESPN made Spinal Tap jokes about his hair, bloggers obsessed over the mullet and the front office began talking about Toja wig night. The spotlight surprised Juan, who had worn that same heavy metal hairstyle as long as he could remember. As a boy, his school required him to have it cropped short but each summer he would defiantly grow it out so as to look more like his idol, Doors lead singer Jim Morrison.

Once he finished school, he stayed with the shaggy look. No one ever questioned it, especially at River where nearly all the Argentine players sported a similar style.

“I never thought it was different because all my partners had hair like me,” he says. “Nobody ever wanted to talk about my hair before I came to the United States.”

Toja welcomes the mullet references, even though his family – who follow all his games on live ESPN or through the Internet – can’t understand the fuss. He even has noticed a few fans wearing Toja wigs at home games.

“I thought it was funny when I saw them,” he says. “It shows me the fans like me and like what I am doing for the team.”

Though his hair has been mentioned in the national press, Toja is contemplating a change. He vows he will turn to a shorter cut this summer, once the stifling Texas heat becomes too much for him. He laughs at the suggestion that, like the biblical Sampson, he could lose his powers without his famed locks.

“I’m not afraid to cut it,” he says. “It’s very hot here and I want to be comfortable.”

As Toja discusses his hairstyle and life in the United States, his relaxed and easygoing demeanor contradicts his frenetic playing style. Where the midfielder is aggressive and feverish on the pitch, he is exceedingly polite and almost timid once his boots are off.

On this particular day, he has just returned from Red Lobster, where he enjoyed a weekly lunch with his teammates. On his feet are a pair of retro Adidas tennis shoes, which once belonged to Sala but Toja won as part of a bet following the midfielder’s game-winning goal in Chicago.

He has formed a tight bond with Sala and midfielder Pablo Ricchetti, in part, because all three are members of the River Plate fraternity. The trio learned of fans’ references to the club being the new River Plate North and they’ve embraced the nickname as well.

“We laugh about it and call ourselves that during training or when we are together outside the field,” Toja says. “It’s fun for us. I’m happy we share this connection.”

And therein lies the very essence of Juan Toja. Regardless of the question or topic, the conversation always comes back to how happy he is in Dallas. He talks about his contentment in an incredulous tone, as if he can hardly believe it himself.  He appreciates the clean streets, the relatively free-flowing traffic, the tranquil neighborhoods, the amiable residents, his Frisco apartment and the food court at the mall. He loves his coaches, his teammates, the front office and that crazy fan who wears a Toja wig to every home game.

He’s so excited about his soccer career, he is making a concerted effort to learn English. Though he doesn’t have time to take formal classes, he practices everyday with teammates, memorizes American rock lyrics and tries out his new linguistic talents on local waiters.

“I like to practice with the fans too – if they speak slowly to me,” he says. “Sometimes they speak so fast with their accents that I cannot understand them.”

As the interview winds down, Toja asks if he can take a few questions in English so he can sharpen his skills. He feels strongly that he has an obligation to learn the language. He answers questions for 30 minutes in careful but grammatically sound English.

“It’s stupid for a professional athlete to live in another country and not learn the language,” he says. “How else will you know the culture? It’s important for me to be able to speak to all my teammates, not just the Latinos.”

Toja knows some Colombian fans disagree with his move to the United States, saying he has killed his chances with the national team. Toja disagrees and contends a stellar year in MLS would help him more than playing with the River reserves.

In fact, his performance here already is drawing attention from the Colombian press. The country’s biggest newspapers, TV stations and soccer-based Internet sites have been covering his meteoric rise in the U.S.-based league, another factor in his motivation to succeed here.

 “If you are one of the best players in your league, the national team coach will know about it,” he says. “I do not worry about losing an opportunity. The coach watches leagues all over the world, not just in Colombia, Spain and Argentina.”

At the same time, Toja knows FC Dallas fans are worried that he will leave the club when his loan expires at the end of the year. He declines to discuss the future, except to say that he would like to stay in Hoops and he will sit down with Santa Fe and FC Dallas officials in December.

“That’s a long time away and I will not think about it now,” he says. “I would like to play here for several years, but first I want to concentrate on this season and winning the championship.”

Toja doesn’t deny he would like to play in Europe some day, as most MLS players do. But then he thinks about the last home game against the Los Angeles Galaxy, when he exited the field in the 87th minute to chants of “Toja! Toja!”

As the adulation poured forth, the young player found himself overwhelmed with emotion. He had an entire stadium standing for him and a head coach who deliberately substituted him so he would know how deeply he’s adored in Frisco.

“I said River was like a dream for me,” he says. “This is another dream. I made the right decision to come here. This is where I should be.”

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