Quietly but relentlessly, MLS keeps growing its profile on the international transfer market, with steadily growing sums of spending both inbound and outgoing from window to window.
This winter’s business ramped up that evolution noticeably, setting multiple new records as a flood of elite talent flowed in from around the world.
You know about the likes of Lionel Messi, Olivier Giroud and Christian Benteke. So, here’s the newest batch of stars ready to light up the league in 2025.
After several years in the wilderness, Atlanta United have high hopes of regaining their place in the MLS elite this season, and the flagship is Latte Lath, the in-prime striker freshly acquired from Middlesbrough for a reported MLS-record $22 million transfer fee plus add-ons.
The Cote d’Ivoire international’s blistering speed is what jumps off the screen. But as ATLUTD.com’s Sandy McAfee noted, he’s a complete forward, ranking among the top six of frontrunners in the EFL Championship in a range of categories, including goals per 90 minutes, non-penalty goals per 90, non-penalty xG per 90, post-shot xG per 90 and finishing quality per 90.
If Miguel Almirón, Alexey Miranchuk and ATL’s range of other providers can keep him served, Latte Lath should cook in MLS.
If you needed one word to describe Charlotte FC under Dean Smith, it might be ‘sturdy.’ The Crown were one of the league’s toughest teams to play against in 2024, organized and compact and a particularly tough out in front of the big home crowds at Bank of America Stadium.
Dynamic in attack they were not, however, exemplified by them scoring just one goal across the 270-plus minutes of their Round One series loss to Orlando City in the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs. So CLT went big in the winter window, recruiting one of the most effervescently creative attackers in the modern history of the English Premier League to spice things up.
That would be Zaha, a livewire dribbler who’s eager to combine with teammates and sniff out pockets of space to uncork shots. We expect the Galatasaray loanee to cook in MLS’s transition-friendly environments, and if all goes well he’ll make Charlotte legit contenders.
Back in 2018, Tom Penn led LAFC to one of the more impressive expansion launches MLS has ever seen, spearheaded by the charisma and on-field quality of Mexican star Carlos Vela.
It was no accident that after San Diego FC hired Penn as their CEO, he sought out a luminary with similar appeal both inside and outside the white lines as the club’s “signature player”: Chucky, El Tri royalty since his breakout performances at the 2018 World Cup, which helped him earn Concacaf Men's Player of the Year, among his boatload of other individual honors.
A slick, incisive winger who’s won league titles at Pachuca, PSV and Napoli, Lozano can do it all from his usual station along the left channel: cut inside and shoot or combine, beat defenders to the byline and cross, arrive at the back post to finish – and he doesn’t shirk his defensive duties, even in pressing schemes like the one SDFC look likely to use. There’s magic in those boots, and the Chrome-and-Azul will rely on it.
Cincy’s climb from MLS punchline to powerhouse was paced by plenty of smart management from general manager Chris Albright and head coach Pat Noonan. Ownership’s commitment to invest whatever is required to compete has also been a key aspect, and they made another big splash shortly after their 2024 campaign ended in a playoffs defeat to New York City FC, setting a new league transfer record (reported $16.2 million) to sign Denkey, the Belgian top flight’s leading scorer last season, from Cercle Brugge.
Atlanta’s capture of Latte Lath would break that record soon enough, but don’t let that distract you from Denkey’s menacing toolkit in front of goal. FCC’s extensive scouting materials documented how the Togo international is the complete package, an efficient finisher with his head and both feet who can provide a No. 9’s hold-up play and channel running, as well as the instincts and movement of a second striker.
“He's a clinical finisher. When you watch him finishing, it's a different level than I think we've seen here at FC Cincinnati,” Albright told MLSsoccer.com during preseason. “We created a bunch of chances last year, and our pursuit of a 9 is well documented. We think his physicality, as well, instantly works in our league.”
After more than a decade’s worth of false dawns in the Windy City, Fire faithful are finally feeling like 2025 might hold a fresh start. New director of football and head coach Gregg Berhalter has brought in a dozen new players, the highest-profile being Bamba, a 28-year-old winger pried away from LaLiga side Celta de Vigo for a reported $2 million fee that could prove to be a steal.
Quick, skillful and direct, Bamba offers both goals and assists and showed as much during preseason, which bodes particularly well for his fellow Designated Player Hugo Cuypers, who needs service to maximize his productivity.
Bamba knows trophies, too: He was a member of Cote d’Ivoire’s 2023 African Cup of Nations-winning squad and helped LOSC Lille stun Paris Saint-Germain – and the rest of French football – with a Cinderella run to the 2020-21 Ligue 1 title.
Austin have set a new club-record transfer fee not once, not twice, but three times in the past half-year or so as they look to revamp their front line and return to the Western Conference reckoning.
First came winger Osman Bukari last summer (reported $7 million), followed by No. 9 Brandon Vazquez earlier this winter (reported $10 million). Then the Verde & Black splashed a reported $12 million-plus to bring Uzuni to central Texas from Spanish second-tier club Granada CF, where he’d been averaging a goal almost every other match.
As MLSsoccer.com’s Armchair Analyst Matt Doyle noted at the time, the Albanian international looks well-suited to partnering with Vazquez: “Work rate, speed, movement in and around the box, a knack for one-touch finishes? He’s got all that, and I have little doubt it’ll translate in MLS.”
How can the New York Red Bulls build on last fall’s surprise run to the MLS Cup final? The Eastern Conference champs are looking to Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain alum Choupo-Moting to help them reach the next level.
The respected German-Cameroonian attacker has hoisted some of European club soccer’s biggest trophies, and RBNY brass hope his nose for goal and leadership will provide an upgrade on his predecessor Dante Vanzeir’s ultimately disappointing tenure.
As their upstart playoff adventure confirmed, Emil Forsberg gave the Red Bulls a huge lift when he arrived from their sibling club in Leipzig a year ago; now he’ll have another talented colleague to connect with at Sports Illustrated Stadium as they aim to give RBNY’s renaissance some staying power.
It speaks to the Spaniard’s gifts that mighty Manchester City bought him from Sporting Gijón at the tender age of 16 a decade ago. While things didn’t quite work out for the No. 10 at the English superclub, his progress sidetracked by injuries and a sequence of loan spells across Europe, he matured into a classy maestro at Aris Thessaloniki in Greece. Now 27 years old, he’s the centerpiece of SKC’s winter rebuild.
García already possesses an understanding with Shapi Suleymanov, the Russian winger simultaneously making the same move from Aris to the Midwest for a hefty combined transfer fee, and his passing vision could be a force multiplier for fellow newcomer Dejan Joveljić, William Agada and the rest of Sporting’s attacking corps. That’s what Peter Vermes & Co. are banking on at Children’s Mercy Park.
Orlando City got the best of both worlds with their Facundo Torres era: The Lions paid a club-record fee to sign the Uruguayan enganche in 2022, won the first trophy of their MLS era with him running the attack in prolific fashion, then sold him on to Brazilian giants Palmeiras this winter for another record-setting figure, reportedly around $14 million.
Pašalić is the Lions' Torres successor, slated to fill his spot as an inverted winger along the right channel where he can pull the strings and test opposing goalkeepers with his “weapon” of a left foot. Having rediscovered his form at HNK Rijeka, earning himself a spot on Croatia’s UEFA Euro 2024 squad, the 24-year-old looks primed to shoulder that responsibility.
He’ll have willing runners ahead of him in Ramiro Enrique and Duncan McGuire, complementary pieces to combine with in Iván Angulo, Martín Ojeda and fellow newcomer Eduard Atuesta, and the full-throated support of the OCSC hardcores who man “The Wall” at Inter&Co Stadium.
A matter of hours after his MVP-caliber 2024 campaign rumbled to its conclusion with a stunning 5-0 home upset playoffs loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps, Portland Timbers’ star playmaker Evander unleashed a social-media broadside against the club’s leadership, effectively sparking a public divorce from the Rose City club.
A game of MLS musical chairs would play out as the Brazilian moved to Cincinnati to replace another disgruntled maestro, Lucho Acosta, making his way to FC Dallas.
Out in Stumptown, PTFC had already arranged for Da Costa to fill their impending need for an attacking midfielder, inking a reported $6 million deal with French side RC Lens. And there’s quite likely more than just a silver lining for the Timbers here.
Beyond a profitable sale for Evander, they’ve gotten younger – Da Costa turned 24 last month – and more difficult to play against in a key area of the pitch, with the former Portugal youth international expected to offer a more active defensive presence in addition to his comfort and guile in half-spaces and propensity for line-breaking through balls.
They don’t really do rebuilding years in Portland; the expectations of Providence Park’s spirited supporters are simply too high for that, which makes Da Costa a vital figure for year two under Phil Neville.
