Tempus fugit.
A mere fortnight remains between us and the opening weekend of the 2025 MLS campaign, and the increasingly frenetic pace of transfers, trades and loans reflects that looming reality.
It’s a lot to keep track of. We’ve got your crib sheet.
It wasn’t a surprise, thanks to weeks of in-the-know reporting on both sides of the Atlantic. But it’s still something of a shock: Atlanta United have smashed – and not for the first time in their brief history -- the league record for biggest inbound transfer fee, completing the signing of Ivorian striker Emmanuel Latte Lath from Middlesbrough for a reported $22 million plus add-ons.
Here’s a telling snapshot of how spending continues to escalate among MLS’s most aggressive clubs: The previous record, FC Cincinnati’s $16.2 million swoop for Togolese frontrunner Kevin Denkey, stood for less than three months.
Pacey, elusive, clinical in front of goal, Latte Lath is seen as the capstone for a sweeping ATLUTD overhaul which began in earnest last summer, and he’s the latest in a string of expensive acquisitions for the Five Stripes, who’ve now made five of the 10 priciest signings in MLS history and splashed somewhere north of $44 million on transfer fees just in the past eight months.
The Columbus Crew’s Cucho Hernández era has drawn to a close, the do-it-all striker moving to Real Betis in a reported $16 million-plus move announced Monday night, one of the largest buys in the La Liga side’s rich history.
It was shorter than most Crew supporters would have hoped, spanning just two and a half seasons, with club leaders reluctantly letting the Colombian striker pursue his dream of a triumphant return to Spain that could improve his prospects of making Los Cafeteros’ World Cup squad next year.
But what a run. Cucho earned All-Star honors, two Best XI nods, a Leagues Cup MVP and a host of other individual achievements as he led the Ohioans to MLS Cup and Leagues Cup titles and last year’s Concacaf Champions Cup final.
“We didn't anticipate him to leave,” Columbus general manager Issa Tall told MLSsoccer.com, “but a team from the top five leagues in the world came about, and he wanted to take this opportunity, asked for us to consider it heavily, and we did.”
Dejan, Manu, Shapi: Good things came in threes for Sporting Kansas City this week.
The Midwesterners’ double dip for Spanish No. 10 Manu García and Russian winger Shapi Suleymanov from Greek outfit Aris Thessaloniki had been reported for weeks, a move for two in-prime chance creators with experience across more than half a dozen top European leagues and the benefit of a preexisting understanding as teammates.
An unexpected bomb dropped over the weekend, however, before those deals went official. Nine weeks after he scored the winning goal for LA Galaxy in the 2024 MLS Cup final, rising striker Dejan Joveljic became the first-ever case of the new cash-for-player trade mechanism. SKC sent $4 million to Southern California and signed the Serb to a Designated Player contract, something the defending champions simply could not offer thanks to their existing corps of DPs.
Suddenly the Kansans, who finished third from bottom in last year’s overall table, have an entirely new front line, to the tune of $9 million in combined transfer fees, according to the Kansas City Star.
“Peter [Vermes] and I met with ownership towards the end of last season,” sporting director Mike Burns told the Star, “and we received complete support from them to start the process and rebuild. That included Designated Players.”
Houston Dynamo FC very nearly grabbed the distinction of the first cash-for-player deal ahead of SKC, as they pulled off a trade with the Philadelphia Union to bring homegrown center mid Jack McGlynn to south Texas.
It’s an intriguing replacement for Héctor Herrera after the Mexican star parted ways with La Naranja at last season’s end, and a big opportunity for a rising domestic prospect keen to push up the US men’s national team ranks and chart a path to Europe.
The Union got a guaranteed $2.1 million up front, plus a “significant” sell-on clause media reports place at 50 percent and performance-based bonuses that could garner an additional $1.3 million – a decent return for a slick-passing metronome type who never quite fit perfectly into the DOOPers’ rugged press-and-counter system.
“Let's see if we can find a solution where everybody can win here,” Dynamo president Pat Onstad told MLSsoccer.com of the two clubs’ negotiations. “There's a handful of guys in our league that we feel can play the role that Héctor plays in advancing the ball and being able to play in tight areas, and maybe provide a goal or two and a final pass from deep, and [McGlynn’s] definitely one of them.”
“I play with heart and I am a fighter on the field, my left foot is my weapon, as well as my dribbling, and I hope to show that here.”
That’s a bar, as the kids say these days, straight from the mouth of Marco Pašalić, the Croatian international just signed by Orlando City as a Designated Player on a reported $5 million fee from HNK Rijeka.
He’s arrived to fill the shoes, both positionally and metaphorically, of Facu Torres, the Uruguayan livewire who moved to Brazilian side Palmeiras in a transfer said to be worth some $14 million, a club-record outgoing fee for the Lions. Age 24, carrying Bundesliga experience, fresh off a trip to Euro ‘24 with his national team, Pašalić will be expected to settle in quickly and keep OCSC among the league’s elite – and those introductory words suggest he’s up for the challenge.
