Mohamed Salah leaving Liverpool is confirmed. Where he lands is not. MLS wants it to be San Diego FC — and there's more substance to that pursuit than the usual league hype might suggest.
San Diego owner Mohamed Mansour is Egyptian-British, the club has ties to Right to Dream's Egyptian academy network, and MLS has reportedly told other teams that Salah is not subject to the league's discovery process — essentially clearing a lane for San Diego to negotiate without competition from within the league. That's a meaningful structural concession. The problem is Al Nassr, reportedly preparing a Saudi Pro League offer that San Diego simply cannot match on salary alone.
The workaround being floated mirrors the Messi and Beckham deals: an ownership stake. In Salah's case, that could mean equity in Right to Dream Egypt, which the Mansour Group acquired for $120 million. It's a creative pitch. Whether it's a convincing one depends entirely on how much Salah values legacy projects over a final monster payday in Saudi Arabia. MLS commissioner Don Garber has publicly said he wants Salah in the league. That's notable — he said he couldn't say it until Liverpool confirmed the exit. Now he's on record.
There's also the small matter of Hirving Lozano's $7.63 million in guaranteed compensation sitting on San Diego's books. Salah plays the same position as Anders Dreyer, who put up 19 goals and 19 assists last season. The roster math is complicated before you even get to the Saudi competition.
Neymar to Cincinnati, Casemiro to LA or Miami
FC Cincinnati's talks with Neymar are ongoing and, per sources, progressing. The Brazilian has started five straight games for Santos, clearly auditioning for Carlo Ancelotti's World Cup squad while keeping his options open. "I honestly don't know," he told Brazilian media when asked about a Cincinnati move. That's not a denial.
Neymar is 34, has four goals and three assists this season across all competitions, and his Santos contract expires in January. A summer move would require Cincinnati to offload one of Evander, Kévin Denkey, or Miles Robinson to free up a designated player slot. Denkey has attracted European interest — Real Betis among the clubs — but Cincinnati won't move him for under $20 million. He cost them a club-record $16.1 million just ahead of this season, so that's not an unreasonable floor.
Casemiro is a cleaner story, at least structurally. His Manchester United contract expires in June, the LA Galaxy hold his discovery rights, and that should settle it. Except Inter Miami keeps pushing anyway. Neither club currently has an open DP slot, but both have the creative accounting history to work around that — the Galaxy did it with Ibrahimović, Miami did it with Alba and De Paul, Vancouver did it with Müller. It gets done when the will is there. The Galaxy's discovery rights give them genuine leverage here, and Miami will need to offer something significantly better to overcome that legal position.
Lewandowski to Chicago is probably dead, and Bernardo Silva isn't coming yet
Chicago made a real push for Robert Lewandowski earlier this year. That pursuit has cooled. The Fire's priorities have shifted, and Lewandowski's own situation has become murkier — he has just four La Liga goals in 2026, though he added four in the Champions League, and Barcelona may keep him at reduced terms as a depth option. Serie A is also interested. He'll be 38 in August. Chicago isn't the frontrunner for anyone at this point; they're quietly building something functional with Hugo Cuypers, who has six goals in five games this season after 17 in 2025. His contract runs through this season with an option for 2027, and multiple MLS clubs are already monitoring his situation.
Bernardo Silva is leaving Manchester City. NYCFC would love to have him — the CFG ownership connection makes it a natural conversation. But Silva has no shortage of top-level European suitors at 31, and MLS doesn't appear to be his priority right now. NYCFC's new stadium opens in 2027, which might be a more natural timeline for that kind of signing. For now, it reads as aspiration rather than negotiation.
The summer window isn't open yet, but MLS is already operating at a different level of ambition than it was five years ago. Whether that ambition converts into actual signings — particularly Salah — depends on factors the league can't fully control. Saudi money has a habit of winning these conversations.
