ORLANDO, Fla. (Jan.\u00a029, 2026) \u2013\u00a0Orlando City SC announced today the transfer of defender Alex Freeman to Villarreal CF of La Liga, Spain\u2019s top division, for a club\u2011record fee for a Homegrown Player. The Lions will\u00a0retain\u00a0a sell\u2011on percentage\u00a0in the event of\u00a0a future move.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex\u2019s journey is a testament to\u00a0the strength of\u00a0our academy, OCB\u00a0and the pathway we\u2019ve built,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Ricardo Moreira,\u00a0Orlando City SC General Manager and Sporting Director.\u00a0\u201cHe\u00a0showed maturity and commitment at every\u00a0level,\u00a0rising\u00a0from a young prospect to an MLS All-Star and one of the league\u2019s top emerging talents. Watching his development up close\u00a0has been incredibly rewarding for\u00a0all of us at\u00a0the Club.\u00a0We\u2019re\u00a0proud of\u00a0everything\u00a0Alex\u00a0has\u00a0accomplished\u00a0here\u00a0and wish him\u00a0continued success\u00a0as he takes this\u00a0next step in his professional career.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freeman, 21, made 34 starts in 42 appearances for the Lions across all competitions, scoring six goals and adding seven assists. The American right back capped a breakout 2025 campaign with selections to the MLS All\u2011Star team, the MLS All\u2011Star Skills Challenge and the 2025 MLS Best XI. He also became the first Orlando City player to win the league\u2019s Young Player of the Year award.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A product\u00a0of the Orlando City Academy, Freeman also broke into the international scene during his standout season, earning his first caps for the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team. He made his debut\u00a0on\u00a0June 6 in an international friendly against T\u00fcrkiye and went on to make 13 appearances for the U.S., scoring twice in a 5-1 friendly win over Uruguay.<\/p>\n
TRANSACTION:\u00a0Orlando City SC transfers defender Alex Freeman to Villarreal CF of Spain\u2019s La Liga.\u00a0The Lions will retain a sell-on percentage in the event of a future transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. (Jan.\u00a029, 2026) \u2013\u00a0Orlando City SC announced today the transfer of defender Alex Freeman to Villarreal CF…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[7699,115,139,4786,141,140,15995],"class_list":{"0":"post-136799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-alexander-freeman","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-city","12":"tag-orlando-headlines","13":"tag-orlando-news","14":"tag-transactions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}