Antoine Griezmann to join Orlando City in MLS when Atletico Madrid season ends: Why 35-year-old is still great

French World Cup winner Antoine Griezmann will join MLS' Orlando City this summer following the conclusion of Atletico Madrid's season, becoming the latest in a growing list of star players to move to the league.

Griezmann flew to Orlando this week to complete the move and signed a designated player deal that will officially begin in July when MLS's secondary transfer window opens, likely making him one of the league's highest-paid players, although specifics of his salary have not been publicized. The 35-year-old's contract runs through the 2027-28 season and includes an option for the 2028-29 campaign. He will wear the No. 7 with Orlando, just as he has with Atleti and with France.

The move became official on Tuesday, weeks after he was first linked to a move to the Florida club. Griezmann, though, had previously expressed an interest in moving stateside in the later stages of his career and now joins a list of players like Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, LAFC's Son Heung-min, the Vancouver Whitecaps' Thomas Muller and Minnesota United's James Rodriguez as high-caliber names in MLS. Griezmann's teammate on France's 2018 World Cup-winning squad, Hugo Lloris, also plays in the league with LAFC.

Griezmann's move to Orlando will bring his years-long spell at Atleti to an end, a club where he made a name for himself during his first spell from 2014 to 2019 and cemented his status as a club legend upon his return in 2021. He currently has 298 goals and 132 appearances for Atleti in 792 matches across all competitions, including 14 goals and four assists in the 2025-26 season. He was the team's leading goalscorer en route to the 2016 UEFA Champions League final, which Atleti lost on penalties to Real Madrid at Milan's San Siro, and the same was true as Atleti won the UEFA Europa League two years later, Griezmann scoring a brace in a 3-0 win over Marseille at Parc Olympique Lyonnais.

The forward has one last chance to win a title with Atleti before his departure in the Copa del Rey final on April 18, when they take on Real Sociedad. Atleti are also still active in the Champions League and are set to play Barcelona in the quarterfinals next month.

Much-needed help for Orlando

Griezmann joins an Orlando team that is in need of whatever help they can get. They have one win in five games to open the 2026 season, conceding a league-high of 17 goals so far and firing head coach Oscar Pareja after their 5-0 loss at New York City FC on March 7.

Defensive woes will be a top concern for interim coach Martin Perelman, but Griezmann will add plenty of value to their sputtering offense, which has mustered just five goals and 6.77 expected goals so far this season. The 35-year-old's shot-taking abilities have dimmed over the course of the campaign with Atletico Madrid, underperforming his season-long average of 0.3 expected goals per game in all but seven of his last 31 games across all competitions. That may change, though, in a league where teams generally overinvest in offensive talent rather than defensive players.

Griezmann, though, is currently making up the gaps in his game with a passing ability that ranks amongst LaLiga's best this season. He boasts an overall passing accuracy of 84.2% this season with Atleti in league play, but more importantly, he averages 5.2 progressive passes per game and 4.8 passes into the final third, ranking in the 98th percentile for both figures. He has also posted 0.24 expected assists per match, again ranking amongst the top players in that category in Spain this campaign.

The big question facing Orlando, though, is who will partner with Griezmann upon his arrival. The team may be gearing up for a rebuild of sorts after Pareja's exit – fellow designated player Martin Ojeda is amongst the standouts with 16 goals from 11.95 expected goals in 2025, a solid showing even if he fell behind several other MLS attackers last year. Duncan McGuire, a former U.S. youth international, is also a frequent fixture in Orlando's team but has averaged just 0.2 expected goals per game since the start of the 2024 season and has just five MLS goals after his 11 goal showing in 2024.