Toth Headed for St. Louis

Socker goalkeeper Zoltan Toth has reached a verbal agreement to play for the St. Louis Storm, but the deal may not be ironed out until Monday, Storm Coach Don Popovic said.

It had been reported that Toth left San Diego and signed with St. Louis Wednesday. But Popovic said Toth was still in San Diego when they spoke Wednesday afternoon.

“He’s not here,” he said. “We’ve agreed verbally on everything, but the deal isn’t done. Nothing is signed.”

Popovic said Toth, the MSL’s all-time leader in winning percentage and goals-against average and is tied for first with Baltimore’s Scott Manning for all-time playoff victories (35), would start ahead of 10-year veteran Slobo Ilijevski.

“I personally think he’s the best in the league,” said Popovic, who coached Toth while both were with the New York Arrows.

The loss of Toth, 34, brings to three the number of veterans the Sockers have lost from last year’s championship team. Defender Ralph Black signed with Tacoma, defender George Fernandez with Cleveland.

“I guess it’s true,” said Socker Coach Ron Newman. “I’m sorry to see him go. He’s a good player and a good friend. We just got caught in the old money trap.”

Newman said the Sockers were already locked into a contract with Victor Nogueira, the No. 1 goalkeeper from the 1988-89 season, and that keeping both was financially impossible. Although he knew of several teams that were interested, Newman said he had hoped that Toth, a Socker since 1984, would reach an agreement to stay. Newman said Toth told him he was willing to take a pay cut to do so.

“He did say he didn’t want to go anywhere,” Newman said. “I was hoping we could do something here for him. He did agree to a substantial cut, but it still meant we had two goalkeepers.”

Toth was second to forward Branco Segota on the team’s player payroll last year, earning $68,000 to Segota’s $102,000.

Popovic wouldn’t indicated how much Toth’s contract would be worth, but that both sides were satisfied.

“He’s happy, and I’m happy that we could reach a figure management agreed on,” Popovic said.