Rangers star Jermain Defoe might be better known around the UK for his goals in the Premier League and now in the Scottish Premiership with Rangers.
But the legendary striker had a spell in Toronto with Canadian MLS side Toronto FC after he left Tottenham Hotspur.
Back in 2014 Defoe crossed the Atlantic for a brief goal-laden jaunt in the Great White North and he told Peter Crouch much of it had to do with global superstar Drake.
“Listen to this one then,” opened Defoe.
“This private number has come up and I don’t really answer it, so I’ve answered it and I didn’t really say anything.
“’Hello, is this Jermain?’, I was like: ‘Who’s this?’ ‘It’s Drake.’
“So I was like: ‘Yeah, good one’
“And he was like: ‘Nah seriously it’s Drake’. Mate, I just went silent on the phone.
“He says: ‘Trust me you should come’, because he’s an ambassador at the club, of Toronto FC.
“He says: ‘Come over, you’ll love it, when I come over I’ll take you out, I’ll take you for dinner, it’s unbelievable’.
“Mate, signed, never seen him. Never seen him. I go over there, he’s never there, Drake’s always in America, I never seen him.”
Speaking on Peter Crouch’s Amazon Prime series Back of the Net [Episode 10], it’s a hilarious tale from the striker and maybe part of the reason why he barely spent a season in the MLS.
He made 21 appearances in total for the Canadian club, scoring 12 goals in total.
Defoe would return on loan to Tottenham for a spell, before moving to Sunderland where he was immensely successful with the Black Cats.
A short spell at Bournemouth followed before the forward moved to Rangers, where his form this season sees him ranked as the second most potent striker in Europe.
Not bad for a 37-year-old.
