{"id":675138,"date":"2026-03-23T03:35:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:35:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/675138\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:35:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:35:16","slug":"antoine-griezmann-flying-to-orlando-to-complete-summer-mls-transfer-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/675138\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann flying to Orlando to complete summer MLS transfer: Sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antoine Griezmann is coming to Major League Soccer.<\/p>\n

The Atl\u00e9tico Madrid star and French World Cup winner was authorized by Atl\u00e9tico to fly to Orlando during his two scheduled days off to complete a deal to join Orlando City this summer, multiple sources briefed on the deal tell The Athletic. Griezmann will be signed through 2027-28 \u2013 the first full season of MLS operating on a calendar more aligned with the top European leagues \u2013 with an option for 2028-29, and he\u2019s due to inherit the No. 7 shirt, a source adds.<\/p>\n

The move ends a weeks-long negotiation in which Orlando initially hoped to woo Griezmann to the U.S. ahead of the close of MLS\u2019s primary transfer window this month, only for the Atl\u00e9tico legend ultimately opting to stay with his club as it chases Copa del Rey and Champions League crowns.<\/p>\n

Griezmann, the all-time leading scorer in Atl\u00e9ti history with more than 200 goals, has not won a Copa del Rey with the Spanish club, but has won a Europa League, Supercopa and UEFA Super Cup and was a Champions League runner-up in 2015-16.<\/p>\n

The French forward has voiced, in the past, a desire to play one day in MLS. He has an affinity for American sports and culture and has vacationed often in the U.S. and is spotted at NBA games.<\/p>\n

Marca first reported<\/a> that Griezmann was traveling.<\/p>\n

He would be the central part of what looks like a rebuild in Orlando City, which parted ways with longtime coach \u00d3scar Pareja<\/a> after just three games this season and currently sits in 13th place in the Eastern Conference, with just one win in five games.<\/p>\n

The Central Florida club has signed top global footballers throughout its history. It joined MLS as an expansion team in 2015 with Ballon d\u2019Or winner Kak\u00e1 as its captain, and the Brazilian World Cup winner played three seasons in MLS. Former Portugal and Manchester United winger Nani then spent three seasons in Orlando from 2019-21.<\/p>\n

The forward would join Lionel Messi, Son Heung-min, Thomas M\u00fcller, James Rodr\u00edguez and his former France teammate Hugo Lloris among the highest-profile players in MLS.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old forward has six goals and one assist in La Liga play this season \u2014\u00a0he had eight goals and seven assists last year \u2014\u00a0for an Atl\u00e9tico team that sits fourth in the table. Griezmann has five goals in the Copa del Rey this year. Atl\u00e9tico will face Real Sociedad in the final on April 18.<\/p>\n

Griezmann also has two goals and three assists in Champions League play. Atl\u00e9ti faces Spanish rivals Barcelona in the quarterfinal round on April 8 and April 14.<\/p>\n

Once sold in a \u20ac120 million deal to Barcelona, Griezmann has scored 44 goals for France, was twice a third-place Ballon d\u2019Or finisher, won a Europa League, was a Champions League runner-up and was part of France\u2019s 2018 World Cup winning squad and 2022 World Cup runners-up.<\/p>\n

He retired from international play in 2024.<\/p>\n

Griezmann should immediately become one of the most dangerous strikers in MLS. Orlando spent this offseason building up a squad around youth players, signing three Brazilian prospects to under-22 initiative contracts \u2014\u00a0an MLS roster-mechanism that encourages teams to sign young players.<\/p>\n

With a younger squad, the Lions have struggled to find their way early in the season, however, and are coming off of a 5-0 loss to Nashville SC this weekend.<\/p>\n

Orlando City is owned by the Wilf family, primarily brothers Mark and Zygi Wilf, who also own the NFL\u2019s Minnesota Vikings. The Wilfs bought the team in 2021.<\/p>\n

The Lions finished ninth in the Eastern Conference last year after finishing second and fourth in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Orlando also won the U.S. Open Cup in 2002, the club\u2019s first trophy as a first-division team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann is coming to Major League Soccer. The Atl\u00e9tico Madrid star and French World Cup winner was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":675139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[48832,6069,44466,21478,11222,140741,121797,34675,140742,61112,15519,156,9499,6074,4732,6068,79140,9501,6656,140744,89028,29097,18289,6073,8895,78395,66783,15520,21601,36219,221,140743,62,125016,29098,67,132,68,65858],"class_list":["post-675138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-atlanta-united-fc","tag-atletico-madrid","tag-austin-fc","tag-charlotte-fc","tag-chicago-fire","tag-club-de-foot-montreal","tag-colorado-rapids","tag-columbus-crew","tag-dc-united","tag-fc-cincinnati","tag-fc-dallas","tag-france","tag-houston-dynamo","tag-inter-miami-cf","tag-la-liga","tag-los-angeles-fc","tag-los-angeles-galaxy","tag-minnesota-united-fc","tag-mls","tag-nashville-soccer-club","tag-new-england-revolution","tag-new-york-city-fc","tag-new-york-red-bulls","tag-orlando-city-sc","tag-philadelphia-union","tag-portland-timbers","tag-real-salt-lake","tag-san-diego-fc","tag-san-jose-earthquakes","tag-seattle-sounders-fc","tag-soccer","tag-sporting-kc","tag-sports","tag-st-louis-city-sc","tag-toronto-fc","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vancouver-whitecaps-fc"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}