Casemiro confirms Manchester United exit as Inter Miami close in on a July arrival
Casemiro will leave Manchester United at the end of the season, ending a four-year run at Old Trafford that started under Erik ten Hag and is finishing on a late-career upswing under Michael Carrick. The 34-year-old confirmed his exit to ESPN Brasil on Tuesday, with the club following up the same day to mark the contract expiry on June 30. Inter Miami have led the race for his signature for weeks, and the new statements close the door on a renewal.
"Leaving through the front door"
Casemiro’s wording in the ESPN Brasil interview was firm: “There is no chance for me to stay one more year. It is leaving through the front door. It has been four wonderful years, and I am eternally grateful not only to the club but to the fans. The cycle has ended here.” He framed the move as a fresh chapter rather than a fallout, and Manchester United’s club channel echoed the tone, thanking him for his contribution and signalling a desire to finish the season “on a high together.”
The departure was not the obvious read three months ago. After a difficult 2024-25 in which he was repeatedly written off as past his level, Casemiro has been one of Carrick’s most-used midfielders since the interim head coach took over in January, and several recent performances have been the closest he has looked to the version Real Madrid sold to United in 2022. The decision is still his, and the cycle, in his framing, ends regardless of how this season finishes.
Inter Miami in pole position, with Saudi and a procedural twist
Inter Miami have been the most concrete bidder. Talks between the David Beckham-co-owned club and Casemiro’s camp have run for several weeks, with reports of a salary structure that would place him among the franchise’s highest-paid designated players. The Brazilian and his family are said to prefer Miami to any other option, including a Saudi Pro League offer that would pay more on paper.
The complication is procedural rather than financial. In MLS, a player’s “discovery rights” sit with a specific club, and Casemiro’s are held by LA Galaxy. That gives Galaxy a structural lever in any negotiation: Inter Miami have to either prise the rights out or work around them through allocation money or a swap. It is the kind of detail that does not surface in European transfers and can stall an otherwise agreed deal.
What United do next
Casemiro’s exit reopens a gap United have been trying to fill since his form first wobbled in 2024. He was central to Ten Hag’s structure and remains, at 34, a five-time Champions League winner with the kind of game intelligence Carrick has leaned on through this run. Whoever the club brings in this summer will be measured against that ceiling, and against the version of Casemiro who has just played his way back into relevance over the past three months.
For Casemiro, the Brazil 2026 World Cup squad still sits between this season and his next club, and that calendar is part of why a July arrival in MLS makes sense for everyone involved.
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