Robert Earnshaw says he turned down multiple options to experience a league that energizes him, one that he told QMI Agency “suits his style” following 14 seasons in Europe.

“I could still play in England with a number of teams,” Toronto FC’s newest attacker said following training at BC Place on Friday. “This excited me. It’s really something that I was prepared for. I turned down a couple of options in England to come here.”

Earnshaw, 31, who has earned 58 caps for Wales since 2002, started and ended his time in England with Cardiff City, a club that apparently no longer required his services ahead of likely promotion into next season’s English Premier League.

His former bench boss even left him with some not-so-flattering words upon watching his former striker depart for what he sees as an inferior league.

“There comes a point, I suppose, in peoples’ careers where they look at lifestyle moves,” Cardiff manager Malky Mackay told the BBC.