CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2013 He\u2019s not present at the MLS All-Star festivities; not this year\u2019s, at least.<\/p>\n
Yet Antoine Griezmann<\/a> is undoubtedly on the minds of many gathered in Charlotte this week, as the French legend\u2019s seismic impact at Orlando City<\/a>\u00a0reverberates across the league.<\/p>\n \n The Griezmann effect<\/p>\n Griezmann\u2019s arrival in central Florida has transformed a side that struggled mightily during the first half of the season, the Lions winning their first two matches following the World Cup pause by a combined score of 5-0, including Saturday\u2019s defeat of Supporters\u2019 Shield-leading Nashville SC<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAntoine is a true gentleman,\u201d Orlando goalkeeper Maxime Cr\u00e9peau<\/a> said after Monday\u2019s All-Stars training session. \u201cOn the field, you see the quality that he brings for us, what glue he is to the group. At the end of the day, everybody embraces that type of person, outside the field and on the field, that he is. So it’s a renewal of energy in the group.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018The Grizi effect\u2019 can even hit home for superstars of comparable caliber.<\/p>\n \u201cI love him,\u201d Son Heung-Min<\/a> said of Griezmann. \u201cI\u2019m a big fan of his since he was playing with Atl\u00e9tico [Madrid] and Real Sociedad. He\u2019s the kind of player that I\u2019ve always wanted to play with, the kind of player that I love to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n Sonny revealed he\u2019s hit up his LAFC<\/a> teammate Hugo Lloris<\/a>, a longtime comrade of Griezmann on the France national team, to source some swag for him.<\/p>\n \u201cHugo told me he\u2019s going to get me one of his jerseys,\u201d he explained. \u201cI can\u2019t wait to play against him, and I hope he\u2019s doing well. He\u2019s already doing well, but I hope he continues his performances, scoring all those goals in MLS for Orlando.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Big-name summer signings<\/p>\n Griezmann is one of several prominent arrivals in the summer transfer window.<\/p>\n Chicago Fire FC<\/a> are hoping for a similar impact from Polish marksman Robert Lewandowski<\/a> \u2013 a \u201chuge, huge signing,\u201d as Sonny put it. Inter Miami CF<\/a> just recruited Real Madrid and Manchester United alum Casemiro<\/a>, who started for Brazil at the 2026 FIFA World Cup<\/a>. And\u00a0Charlotte FC<\/a> replaced Wilfried Zaha with former Newcastle United star Allan Saint-Maximin<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n Star power of that wattage is not exactly new for MLS, which has welcomed globally-recognized faces since its birth three decades ago. But the flow may be approaching a tipping point, particularly with Lionel Messi<\/a> still at the top of his game and the 2026 FIFA World Cup having just given dozens of elite players a firsthand tour of what\u2019s on offer in North America.<\/p>\n \u201cThere’s some really good names of players come in, and it\u2019s certainly captured attention of what I would call other big-name players, because I’ve had a couple of texts already,\u201d Charlotte and MLS All-Stars head coach Dean Smith said on Tuesday, adding that he believes this migration will be helped by next year\u2019s shift to a fall-to-spring calendar to align with Europe\u2019s top leagues.<\/p>\n \u201cThe likes of Griezmann coming into the league, and we’ve got Son here, with Thomas M\u00fcller<\/a> here with us as well \u2013 when you start attracting them types of players, then I think that can only be good for the league, and encourage other people to come over.\u201d<\/p>\n Like any industry, friends and colleagues keep in touch across the soccer world, and as more luminaries experience the league, they tend to pass along their perspectives to others considering a new chapter in their careers.<\/p>\n One notable twist: As the league\u2019s overall quality rises, it becomes both a more challenging proposition and a more intriguing one for imports, who must themselves bring substantial value to merit a Designated Player slot, which remains limited to just three per club.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s always nice when the competition gets better and better,\u201d M\u00fcller noted on Monday. \u201cBut for sure, even if you’re a big name, you have to integrate yourself into the league. It’s not that easy, as you maybe think. As I experienced it, since almost one year now, there is a big competition, and just because you have a big name in Europe, that doesn’t mean that you’re successful over here.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlotte captain and English Premier League veteran Ashley Westwood<\/a> echoed that warning.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s a unique league,\u201d Westwood told MLSsoccer.com. \u201cIt’s hard. It’s got better in the short space I’ve been here. So listen, it’s not easy to get here, and I think if you’re coming here, you want to be here, and you want to be part of it. It’s not just for fun and lifestyle. It’s [that] you want to improve \u2013 improve the team and improve the league.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Next up?<\/p>\n Rumors swirl around who might be next.<\/p>\n Names like Mo Salah and Cristiano Ronaldo have lately been linked to MLS moves, though many clubs are equally or more open to investment in less-famous reinforcements with fewer miles on the odometer, like\u00a0San Diego FC<\/a>\u2019s acquisition of Tunisian international winger\u00a0Elias Achouri<\/a> and Toronto FC<\/a>\u2019s new engine-room addition\u00a0Niklas Dorsch<\/a> from the Bundesliga.<\/p>\n Ideally, these signings improve your team\u2019s results immediately. The most prominent can goose revenue and raise relevance in your community. In the longer term, most will lift the level of the young domestic players around them as mentors and role models.<\/p>\n If you can hit on all three fronts, you might just win a trophy or two.<\/p>\n \u201cYou bring in guys like Griezmann, it improves the league dramatically right away,\u201d said Toronto FC and Canada<\/a> fullback Richie Laryea<\/a>. \u201cFrom that standpoint, I think the World Cup even helped as well for these teams to have seen Canada and the U.S. and see how beautiful some of the cities are and how nice the stadiums are, the facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of that is going to play a big part in now some of these worldwide talents and global stars to see that coming over and playing this way is great, and it’s a really good league with really good players as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. \u2013 He\u2019s not present at the MLS All-Star festivities; not this year\u2019s, at least. Yet Antoine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[145210,47194,9596,139,4786,141,140,4959],"class_list":["post-356643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-2026-mls-all-star-game","tag-antoine-griezmann","tag-national-writer-charles-boehm","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-city","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-sendtonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356643","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=356643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}