{"id":204204,"date":"2026-03-24T18:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204204\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T18:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T18:00:07","slug":"antoine-griezmann-to-leave-atletico-madrid-and-join-mlss-orlando-city-la-liga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/204204\/","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Griezmann to leave Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and join MLS\u2019s Orlando City | La Liga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Orlando City SC completed the long-anticipated signing of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a> superstar Antoine Griezmann on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old French attacker is signed from July 2026 through the 2027-28 season with an option for 2028-29. Financial terms were not disclosed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing Antoine to Orlando is a landmark moment not only for our club, but for our city, our supporters and for Major League Soccer,\u201d team owner and chair Mark Wilf said. \u201cHe is one of the most gifted, accomplished and influential players of his generation, and his decision to choose Orlando City<\/a> reflects the mission and culture of our club. Our focus is on consistently building a championship-caliber roster every year, and adding a world-class player like Antoine reinforces that commitment and our belief in what the club can achieve.\u201c<\/p>\n

Griezmann joins an Orlando City team that enjoys an intra-state and increasingly heated rivalry with Lionel Messi\u2019s Inter Miami. However, the Lions have suffered to start the 2026 season, with four losses in their opening five games leading to head coach \u00d3scar Pareja\u2019s sacking in March.<\/p>\n

Griezmann will join the Lions as a designated player when the MLS<\/a> secondary transfer window opens in July, pending medical clearance and receipt of his international paperwork.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very excited to begin this next chapter of my career with Orlando City,\u201d Griezmann said. \u201cFrom my first conversations with the club, I could feel a strong ambition and a clear vision for the future, and that really spoke to me. I look forward to making Orlando my new home, meeting the supporters, feeling the energy at Inter+Co Stadium, and giving everything I have to help the team achieve great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Griezmann has recorded 13 goals and four assists across all competitions with the La Liga<\/a> side this season.<\/p>\n

The 2018 World Cup winner spent 10 seasons at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, where he is the club\u2019s all-time leader with 211 goals across all competitions from 2014-19 and 2021-26. He was the La Liga Player of the Year in 2015-16 and placed third in the Ballon d\u2019Or voting in 2016 and 2018. His 488 games are the fourth-most in Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

He has won three trophies with Atl\u00e9tico: the 2014 Spanish Super Cup, the 2018 Europa League and the 2018 Uefa Super Cup. Atl\u00e9tico has the Copa del Rey final next month and is up against Barcelona in the Champions League quarter-finals. Griezmann has also played for Real Sociedad and Barcelona.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s leave the future in the future because I\u2019m not leaving yet,\u201d Griezmann said in comments provided by Atl\u00e9tico. \u201cI still have months left in this shirt, months to give my life on the pitch, both at our stadium and away, to lift that Copa del Rey and to dream of going as far as possible in the Champions League.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAntoine is a complete footballer \u2013 creative, intelligent, clinical \u2013 and he is a proven winner on the biggest stages of the game,\u201d Orlando City general manager Ricardo Moreira said. \u201cBeyond his talent, he brings leadership, a relentless drive and a championship mentality that will elevate everyone around him. This is a statement signing for our club and ownership group, and we are thrilled to welcome Antoine and his family to Orlando.\u201c<\/p>\n

Griezmann has tallied 298 goals and 132 assists across 792 professional appearances in Spain. He had 44 goals in 137 caps for France before retiring from international competition in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orlando City SC completed the long-anticipated signing of Atl\u00e9tico Madrid superstar Antoine Griezmann on Tuesday. The 35-year-old French…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[139,141,140],"class_list":["post-204204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204204","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=204204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}