{"id":203551,"date":"2026-03-24T06:19:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203551\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T06:19:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T06:19:26","slug":"orlando-city-sc-closing-in-on-antoine-griezmann-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/203551\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando City SC closing in on Antoine Griezmann signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">La Liga club Atl\u00e9tico Madrid F Antoine Griezmann is \u201ccoming to\u201d MLS as he \u201cwas authorized by Atl\u00e9tico to fly to Orlando during his two scheduled days off to complete a deal to join Orlando City this summer,\u201d according to sources cited by Tenorio, Bogert &amp; Cortegana of THE ATHLETIC. A source added that Griezmann \u201cwill be signed through 2027-28\u201d &#8212; the first full season of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/11\/14\/mls-calendar-shift-features-tradeoffs-from-global-alignment-to-winter-attendance-uncertainty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/11\/14\/mls-calendar-shift-features-tradeoffs-from-global-alignment-to-winter-attendance-uncertainty\/\">MLS operating on a calendar more aligned with the top European leagues<\/a> &#8212; with \u201can option for 2028-29, and he\u2019s due to inherit the No. 7 shirt.\u201d The move ends a weeks-long negotiation in which Orlando initially \u201choped to woo Griezmann to the U.S. ahead of the close of MLS\u2019s primary transfer window this month,\u201d only for the Atl\u00e9tico legend ultimately \u201copting to stay with his club\u201d as it chases Copa del Rey and Champions League crowns. Griezmann in the past has voiced a \u201cdesire to play one day in MLS.\u201d He has an \u201caffinity for American sports and culture\u201d and has \u201cvacationed often in the U.S. and is spotted at NBA games.\u201d He would be the \u201ccentral part of what looks like a rebuild in Orlando City.\u201d Griezmann would join Inter Miami F Lionel Messi, LAFC F Son Heung-min, Whitecaps MF Thomas M\u00fcller, Minnesota United MF James Rodr\u00edguez and his former France teammate and current LAFC GK Hugo Lloris among the \u201chighest-profile players in MLS\u201d (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7139610\/2026\/03\/22\/antoine-griezmann-transfer-atletico-madrid-orlando-city-mls-summer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7139610\/2026\/03\/22\/antoine-griezmann-transfer-atletico-madrid-orlando-city-mls-summer\/\">THE ATHLETIC, 3\/22<\/a>). <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-franchises \">GLOBAL SUPERSTAR: SI\u2019s Ben Steiner writes by joining Orlando, Griezmann will become the club\u2019s \u201cmost significant global superstar in a decade,\u201d with the team having launched featuring former soccer player and Ballon d\u2019Or winner Kak\u00e1 as its marquee attraction from 2014 to 2017. Griezmann\u2019s flight to the U.S. to set up his deal \u201cappears to be the critical stage in a long, drawn-out negotiation,\u201d which initially saw Orlando target his services for the winter transfer window before he opted to stay with Atl\u00e9tico. Finally signing in Orlando, he also put an end to \u201cseveral rumors\u201d over the years that linked him to clubs including LAFC, Galaxy, Inter Miami and CF Montr\u00e9al (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/antoine-griezmann-mls-move-transfer-u-turn-potential-debut-date-revealed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/soccer\/antoine-griezmann-mls-move-transfer-u-turn-potential-debut-date-revealed\">SI, 3\/23<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Liga club Atl\u00e9tico Madrid F Antoine Griezmann is \u201ccoming to\u201d MLS as he \u201cwas authorized by Atl\u00e9tico&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[3469,5692,139,141,140,2062],"class_list":["post-203551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-deals","tag-mls","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203551","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=203551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}