Jonathan Osorio

SC Toronto

Back in Toronto and without a club after his spell in Uruguay, Osorio was introduced to SC Toronto of the Canadian Soccer League by an acquaintance from his gym who had arranged physiotherapy for him; the league mattered to his prospects because the Toronto FC Academy also competed in it, which gave him a stage on which to be seen. He signed for the 2012 season and finished as the club's second-highest scorer, helping Toronto to third place in the overall standings and a postseason berth. He featured in the playoff quarter-final against the Serbian White Eagles, a 1–0 defeat that ended the club's season, and was named the league's Rookie of the Year.

Toronto FC

Early years and a first MLS Cup final (2013–2016)

Osorio joined the Toronto FC Academy in September 2012 and was invited to train with the first team during the following preseason, impressing head coach Ryan Nelsen enough to earn a professional contract. Academy coach Danny Dichio had put him forward for the senior preseason after roughly three weeks of training. He made his Major League Soccer debut on March 9, 2013, against Sporting Kansas City, replacing Terry Dunfield, and scored his first goal three weeks later, coming off the bench to convert in the 78th minute against the Los Angeles Galaxy on March 30. A second followed on April 27, an equaliser in the closing minutes against the New York Red Bulls in a match Toronto lost 2–1 to a late Tim Cahill goal, and the strike…

Youth and early caps

Osorio made his debut for the Canada under-20 team in 2011, aged 18, at the 2011 CONCACAF U-20 Championship in Guatemala. He received his first senior call-up on May 23, 2013, and debuted five days later as a second-half substitute for Samuel Piette in a 1–0 defeat to Costa Rica at Commonwealth Stadium. He was 20, joining a team still absorbing an 8–1 defeat to Honduras that had ended its previous World Cup campaign. He played eight times in 2013, including at the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup, and featured at the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, where Canada went out in the group stage. Between 2014 and 2017 he won only 11 caps, rarely selected by coach Benito Floro despite his form for Toronto. Osorio has said he was "kind of put to the side from the program for a couple of years." He scored his first international goal against Bermuda in January 2017 and played at that year's Gold Cup.

Herdman era and World Cup qualification

That changed with the appointment of John Herdman in 2018. Osorio has described the coach's first phone call as a turning point: "He told me he believed in me and this meant a lot for me after being kind of away from the program ... To have that phone call from him, and to have him say I want you on the team and I see you as an important part, it meant a lot." He returned to regular selection, played at the 2019 and 2021 Gold Cups, reaching the semi-finals in 2021 before a 2–1 defeat to Mexico. On October 7, 2021, he scored an…

A central midfielder who arrived in the professional game as an attacking player, Osorio has described his own development as a shift from instinct toward game management: "I think when I came in as a young guy I was a young kid who was very determined, very driven and a little bit naive ... To now, I have gotten a lot smarter on the pitch and I am able to impact the game a lot more than I was before." His scoring has been unusually consistent for a midfielder, reaching double figures in all competitions in 2018 and 2022 and extending a run of scoring in 13 consecutive MLS seasons. He has objected to being framed primarily through his nationality rather than his performance. "I think a lot, and I understand why when people speak about me and my success they talk about me as a Canadian, but I think sometimes it isn't fair," he said in 2023. "Why don't you speak to me as a player in the league, as a whole, against all other countries?"

Osorio's parents are Colombian – his father is a native of Cali, while his mother was born in Medellín. Osorio's younger brothers, Anthony and Nicholas, previously played for Toronto FC II.

Osorio was born in Brampton, Ontario, to Colombian parents; his father is from Cali and his mother from Medellín. He began playing with Brampton Youth Soccer at the age of 10 and moved at 15 to Clarkson Sheridan SC in neighbouring Mississauga, where he played alongside Lucas Cavallini, another son of South American parents who would become a Canada teammate. He graduated from St. Edmund Campion Secondary School. After the Clarkson youth team toured Uruguay, both Osorio and Cavallini were offered trials at Nacional and moved to Montevideo in 2010. Osorio spent two years at the academy, progressing from the under-19 side to the reserves, but both Canadians encountered resistance from local players who regarded them as outsiders competing for their places. He returned to Canada at the end of 2011 into what he later called "dark days". An expected trial with Toronto FC under Paul Mariner did not materialise, a return to Uruguay was no longer possible, and he was struggling with patellar tendinitis. "I was really injured. I didn't have a team," he said. "It was dark days for, I would say, four to five months."