2025 MLS season preview: 7 teams (and players) to care about, who and what's new, predictions and more
Major League Soccer enters its 30th season as the biggest soccer league in the world. Not the best, nor the most popular; but, with 30 teams scattered coast to coast, across two countries and four time zones, it is vast. And its vastness, in many ways, is an emblem of success.
MLS survived a rocky first decade. It has grown, in almost every sense of the word, since. With the introduction of San Diego FC in 2025, it has tripled in size. Its franchise valuations have increased twentyfold. Its geographic footprint is now on par with that of the NHL, NFL, NBA and MLB.
Its vastness, however, is also a problem. To the casual soccer fan or U.S. sports fan, most of its 30 clubs are nondescript. Its expansion — although great for business — and its regulated parity — although great for controlling costs and competitive balance — have muddled the development of catchy narratives that don’t involve Lionel Messi, and the ability of clubs to differentiate themselves beyond their local markets.
In the other major U.S. leagues, there is space for 30 teams because those 30 are the 30 best in the world. The Buffalo Bills don’t compete with the Munich Cowboys for American attention. The Golden State Warriors and Boston Red Sox don’t compete with clubs in Mexico and England for programming hours, media dollars and headspace.
But MLS does. It must give fans (and media) reasons to care about and talk about its teams, rather than about Monterrey or Tottenham Hotspur or Barcelona — and rather than about the Bills, Warriors or Red Sox.
Its advantage, of course, is locality. MLS clubs offer soccer that fans can reach out and touch. Many have captivated core groups of supporters, and fostered community, and carved out space in their cities or regions. Their per-match attendance now tops 23,000, and ranks fifth among domestic soccer leagues worldwide. This is the MLS success story. Every recent expansion team, from Atlanta to Cincinnati, from Charlotte to St. Louis, has thrived.
But they still struggle for national and international relevance. The 2024 MLS Cup final — contested by the LA Galaxy and New York Red Bulls, two supposedly “big-market” teams — was seen by a record-low 468,000 viewers on Fox and Fox Deportes. It also streamed on Apple TV, but, per Nielson estimates, it’s likely that fewer than 100,000 people watched there. The harsh reality is that the league, to a majority of U.S. sports fans and a majority of global soccer fans, still doesn’t really matter.
Its only clear path to broader relevance is to spend multiples more on players — something its owners and executives have shown little willingness to do. They frequently speak about being a “league of choice,” but they haven’t agreed on a plan to become one.
Instead, in the meantime, they will savor stability. Their broadcast rights now fetch $250 million per year from Apple. Expansion fees have skyrocketed from $7.5 million in 2005 to $500 million in San Diego. Billionaire after billionaire, gazing into a bright future, has wanted a piece of the MLS pie.
And the pie, undoubtedly, is growing. But with each slice of a knife, each piece becomes less distinguishable. MLS enters Year 30 with more teams than ever but little clarity on which to care about.
So that’s where we’ll begin our 2025 season preview: by picking out the handful of teams that deserve your attention.
The 7 MLS teams to care about in 2025
MLS remains intentionally unpredictable, but the following seven clubs are safe bets for 2025 intrigue.
Inter Miami
Duh. Messi and friends broke the single-season points record last year. They flopped in the playoffs, but they’re nonetheless an obvious 2025 favorite (at +350). Messi is still box-office gold. The unknown is how his apparently hand-picked coach, former Barcelona and Argentina teammate Javier Mascherano, will fare in his very first club coaching gig.
LA Galaxy
The defending champs have retooled on the fringes, but retained most of the high-flying core that stormed to a sixth MLS title in December. Riqui Puig, the West’s top entertainer, will spend most of the year recovering from a torn ACL, and winger Joseph Paintsil is also injured … but the Galaxy will surely be back in the mix come autumn.
LAFC
They have the stars — Olivier Giroud, Denis Bouanga and more — to grab headlines. They have the infrastructure to sustain success. They’ve been perhaps the most consistently competitive club in MLS since joining the league in 2018. They should contend for a fourth Western Conference crown in 2025, and maybe a second MLS Cup.
Columbus Crew
The Crew have been the league’s gold standard for the better part of two years, with really only one exception: an inexplicable first-round playoff loss to the Red Bulls last November. Wilfried Nancy is still the league’s savviest, most coveted coach. Cucho Hernandez, last year’s runner-up to Messi for MVP, has departed to Real Betis in Spain for around $16 million; but no club is better equipped than Columbus to reload and still play exquisite soccer without him.
FC Cincinnati
In one of the league’s smallest markets, FC Cincy has set a shining example for the rest of MLS. It has built a strong brand on one very simple tenet: winning. Its 2025 offseason was one of change (more on that below!), but its roster, on paper, still looks like one of the best — and perhaps the single most balanced — in MLS.
Atlanta United
After a few chaotic, wearying years, Atlanta spent big to right its wobbling ship. Miguel Almirón, the creative force behind the club’s 2018 MLS title, is back. Ronny Deila, who led NYCFC to glory in 2021, is the new head coach. Chris Henderson, the non-Messi architect of 2024 Inter Miami, is the new sporting director. With so many moving parts, the Atlanta machine could once again combust … but it also could tear through the league. Either way, it’ll be fun to watch.
Seattle Sounders
They’ve loaded up on phased-out USMNTers who double as trusted, occasionally prolific MLS veterans. Toss in designated player Pedro de la Vega and rising Mexican American star Obed Vargas, and the Sounders have nearly every ingredient of a title contender. (They’ll also represent MLS this summer in FIFA’s inaugural 32-team Club World Cup, which they should prioritize over the regular season; but come October and November, they’ll be all in on winning an MLS title.)
Beyond those seven, there will, of course, be stories and surprises. The Red Bulls could prove that last year’s playoff run was no fluke. Charlotte FC could be this year’s 2023 Cincinnati. The possibilities are endless.
But for now, those are the teams to watch. And below are the players …
What’s new in MLS in 2025?
The big legislative innovation of 2025 has been the introduction of an intraleague, cash-for-player transfer system. Previously, transactions within MLS required non-cash assets, such as draft picks or allocation money. Now, much like the rest of the soccer world, MLS clubs can buy players from MLS brethren.
And, over the past two months, they’ve been doing just that. The result is several familiar faces in new places …
Lucho Acosta, FC Cincinnati to FC Dallas
The 2023 MVP’s ugly, protracted divorce with FC Cincy ended in a $5 million move to Dallas.
Evander, Portland Timbers to FC Cincinnati
Cincy, within a week, turned around and used that money to smash the intraleague transfer record. It shelled out $12 million for another one of the league’s top playmakers. Evander will slot right into Acosta’s No. 10 position and fuel what should be a dynamic attack.
Dejan Joveljić, LA Galaxy to Sporting Kansas City
In the first-ever intraleague, cash-for-player trade, Sporting KC acquired one of the Galaxy's 2024 playoff heroes. (The Galaxy then moved for a Columbus Crew 2023 playoff hero, Christian Ramirez.)
There were traditional trades and free agent movement as well. Chicho Arango, who scored or created 29 goals in 30 games for Real Salt Lake last season, is now in San Jose. So is Josef Martínez. Paul Arriola and Jesús Ferreira are now in Seattle. Mark Delgado moved across L.A., from the Galaxy to LAFC.
Among the other notable moves within MLS were:
Jack McGlynn, Philadelphia Union to Houston Dynamo
Josh Atencio, Seattle Sounders to Colorado Rapids
Mateusz Klich, D.C. United to Atlanta United
Ilie Sánchez, LAFC to Austin FC (as a free agent)
Eryk Williamson, Portland Timbers to Charlotte FC
Shaq Moore, Nashville SC to FC Dallas
Leonardo Campana, Inter Miami to New England Revolution
Jalen Neal, LA Galaxy to CF Montreal
As always, though, the bigger sources of excitement — and the bigger unknowns — are the new signings coming to MLS from abroad.
Who’s new in MLS in 2025?
Emmanuel Latte Lath, Atlanta United
Remember when we said the Five Stripes spent big? They paid $22 million, by far an MLS-record sum, to sign Latte Lath, a 26-year-old Ivorian striker, from Middlesbrough in the English second division. And then …
Miguel Almirón, Atlanta United
… they brought Almirón back after the Paraguayan winger spent six up-and-down years at Newcastle in the Premier League.
Kévin Denkey, FC Cincinnati
Before Atlanta could usurp it atop the historical spending charts, Cincy broke the league record to bring in Denkey, a 24-year-old Togolese striker, from Cercle Brugge in Belgium. Together with Evander and Luca Orellano, he’ll spearhead what could be the league’s most dangerous non-Miami frontline.
Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, San Diego FC
San Diego’s first splashy signing has had a strange career arc. It seems like just yesterday that he was the hottest young thing in Mexican soccer. He went from Pachuca to PSV Eindhoven to Napoli … and then stagnated, so much so that, at 29 years old, he’s been out of the national team for a year, and his route back is via MLS.
Luca de la Torre, San Diego FC
The expansion team’s other headliner is the only U.S. men’s national team regular to join MLS this winter. (De la Torre is a San Diego native, but left home as a teen and had been in Europe for more than a decade, until last month.)
Wilfried Zaha, Charlotte FC
Remember him? The former Crystal Palace (and, briefly, Manchester United) winger comes to MLS on loan from Galatasaray in Turkey. He’s not the frighteningly fast terrorizer of fullbacks that he once was, but at 32 years old, he has plenty left in his tank.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, New York Red Bulls
You surely remember Choupo-Moting — from Schalke, and more recently PSG and Bayern Munich. He’s rarely been the guy at a big club. He will be in New York (er, New Jersey), where Emil Forsberg will be his main supplier.
Brandon Vasquez and Myrto Uzuni, Austin FC
Austin spent over $20 million to overhaul its attack. You’ll recognize Vasquez, who balled at FC Cincinnati, earned a transfer to Liga MX giant Monterrey, started fast but then lost his place, and has now returned to MLS. You probably don’t recognize Uzuni, but perhaps you soon will; at age 29, he’s a curious signing, but he’d been shredding the Spanish second division.
David da Costa, Portland Timbers
Portland’s Evander replacement arrives from Lens in France for around $5 million.
Lucas Sanabria, LA Galaxy
The 21-year-old Uruguayan midfielder will immediately step into a pivotal role after a $5 million move from Nacional.
Igor Jesus, LAFC
Across town, Jesus, a 21-year-old Brazilian, will fill a similar role for LAFC.
Tadeo Allende and Telasco Segovia, Inter Miami
These two will attempt to replace Diego Gómez (and, to a lesser extent, Matías Rojas). Allende, signed on loan from Celta Vigo in Spain, is the more proven commodity, but Segovia, a 21-year-old Venezuelan international, is the more exciting prospect.
Old coaches, new projects
The other story of the offseason was coaching changes. There were 12 in total, and a few notable ones:
Bruce Arena, San Jose Earthquakes — After a bizarre saga ousted him in New England, the dean of American soccer coaches returns to the league he won five times … and joins MLS’ cheapest club. He takes over the league’s worst team. Can he do what he did with the Revs, and quickly turn the Quakes into a contender?
Gregg Berhalter, Chicago Fire — Berhalter, after a weirdly polarizing, scandal-interrupted five years at the helm of the USMNT, took the Fire job in part so he could stay in Chicago — where he moved in 2018 to take the U.S. job, where his kids are in school and where his family had grown comfortable. In that sense, it’s a great opportunity. In a soccer sense? Well, the Fire have been an MLS laughingstock the past few years. So, similar to Arena’s project in San Jose, it’s an opportunity to transform a poorly run organization into a respectable one. (Both Berhalter and Arena are serving as head coach and sporting director at their respective clubs.)
Javier Mascherano, Inter Miami — If not for his relationship with Messi, he’d be pretty darn unqualified for the Miami job. But, as Inter Miami owner Jorge Mas said in November, “I want Leo to feel comfortable with the new coach who is coming in.” Mas asked Messi for “input.” One of the two — or was it Raúl Sanllehí, the since-ousted president of football? — chose Mascherano, whose only previous coaching experience was with Argentina youth teams. How it will work out is anybody’s guess.
Elsewhere, Atlanta lured Deila back from Europe. Toronto picked Robin Fraser, a highly respected MLS coach, to replace the disgraced John Herdman. St. Louis hired former Aston Villa stalwart Olof Mellberg; and the former coach that St. Louis probably shouldn’t have fired, Bradley Carnell, popped up in Philadelphia (to replace another coach who probably shouldn’t have been fired, Jim Curtin).
Coaches aren’t always the changemakers that fans think they’ll be, but, with so much turnover, a dozen clubs will at least look different.
Predictions
So, how will it all shake out? Some dart-at-the-wall predictions:
MLS Cup: Inter Miami over Seattle Sounders
Supporters’ Shield winner: FC Cincinnati
Eastern Conference regular season winner: FC Cincinnati
Western Conference regular season winner: LAFC
MVP: Lionel Messi
Golden Boot: Messi
Newcomer of the Year: Does Almirón count? If not, his teammate, Emmanuel Latte Lath, is a good bet.
Young Player of the Year: Obed Vargas
How will MLS teams do in the Club World Cup? Neither Miami nor Seattle will make it past the group stage.
How will MLS teams do in the CONCACAF Champions Cup? Better than last year, and LAFC will make the final, but Club América will win it.
