MLS keeps luring Europe’s icons as its summer window swings open
Allan Saint-Maximin’s move to Charlotte is the latest sign of a trend. As the MLS summer window opens, some of Europe’s biggest names keep heading to America.
Jul 14, 2026
When Lionel Messi walked into Inter Miami in 2023, plenty of people treated it as a one-off, a single superstar cashing a farewell cheque in the Florida sun. Three years on, that reading looks badly wrong. As Major League Soccer’s summer window swings open, the league is once again pulling in some of the biggest names Europe has to offer, and the list keeps getting longer.
The latest to land is Allan Saint-Maximin. On July 13 the France winger joined Charlotte FC on a three-year deal running through the 2028-29 season, arriving off the back of a strong half-season at Lens, who finished second in Ligue 1 and won the Coupe de France. At 29 he is not a veteran winding down. He is a player close to his peak choosing America, and that is a different kind of signal.
Two icons swap Spain for the sun
The headline arrivals are older and far more decorated. Robert Lewandowski, 37, has joined Chicago Fire as a free agent on a two-year deal after his Barcelona contract expired, closing a European career that ran through eight seasons at Bayern Munich and four at Barcelona. Antoine Griezmann, 35, has finally completed his long-trailed move to Orlando City after leaving Atlético Madrid as the club’s all-time leading scorer. The France forward, a World Cup winner in 2018, agreed the switch back in March and sealed it once the European season finished.
Neither is the player who tore defences apart a decade ago. Both are still names that sell shirts, fill stadiums and give a broadcaster something to build a night around. That, more and more, is the MLS pitch.
Not everyone says yes
The league does not win every race, and that part matters too. Kevin De Bruyne is the counter-example. Courted more than once by MLS sides, including Chicago Fire, the Belgian has stayed in Europe with Napoli rather than cross the Atlantic. His choice is a useful reminder that MLS now competes for these players against Serie A and the Saudi Pro League. It is no longer just mopping up whoever Europe has finished with.
Inter Miami remain the clearest proof that the model works. Messi turned them into a genuine draw, and Casemiro’s arrival this summer adds more weight to a squad already built around one of the game’s great names. The template is obvious now, and other clubs are copying it.
A league buying time and attention
There is a fair debate about whether any of this is good for MLS as a sporting product. Handing two-year deals to forwards of 35 and 37 is not long-term squad-building, and the league has been here before in the designated-player years of the 2010s. But the calculation has shifted. With the 2026 World Cup being played on home soil, the audience is bigger and more curious than it has ever been, and a familiar European face is the quickest way to turn a casual viewer into a ticket buyer.
Whether the standard of football rises is a separate question, and an honest one. For now the traffic runs one way, and every completed deal makes the next big name a little easier to sign.