Bob Bradley fondly remembers Kevin Payne, TFC's first president
The Toronto FC coach worked under Payne at D.C. United, forging a friendship that lasted until his passing on Christmas Day.
Toronto FC lost a member of its extended family over the recent holiday season with the death of Kevin Payne.
The first president in TFC history, Payne was a long-time soccer executive who was inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame as a builder in 2021 and helped D.C. United become Major League Soccer's first dynasty. Payne died on Christmas Day in Charleston, S.C., from a long-term lung illness. He was 69.
A monumental figure in MLS for so many years, Payne was remembered by commissioner Don Garber as "one of the league's most successful club executives" and as someone who "was instrumental in the formation of the league."
