It’s the international break, which means there’s no club football, which means that everything quiets down and attention shifts to other areas. That includes rumination over potential summer 2026 transfer moves, and when THAT happens, it almost always seem to involve Tottenham Hotspur somehow.
Okay, that’s true for every club, but this is a Tottenham blog and so we pay close attention to the things we pay close attention to. So this made my ears prick up: According to (deep sigh) Fabrizio Romano’s podcast, Orlando City has had contact with Richarlison’s entourage about a possible move to MLS this coming summer.
Richarlison is under contract at Tottenham Hotspur until summer of 2027, but in truth we’ve been talking about the possibility of moving him on for a couple of years now. It’s not that he’s a bad player — he isn’t. When he’s on his game he’s can be a deadly finisher and he’s very good at holding the ball up and getting on the ends of crosses for headers and one-time finishes. There’s also no chance that he’d leave the club in January, since with Dom Solanke’s injury he’s Spurs’ de facto first choice striker.
But he’s 28, has struggled with injury since moving to the club from Everton, and Spurs will need to think about upgrading him in the medium term whether or not he regains enough form to make Brazil’s World Cup squad.
MLS has been weirdly flush with cash lately, and we don’t have to look very far to see an example of it — LAFC’s record £20m signing of Son Heung-Min has been good for everyone involved, and MLS is starting to be seen as a viable destination for a certain type of aging footballer who might want to squeeze a couple more years out of his career before either returning to Brazil or hanging up his boots.
In the interest of clarity it should be pointed out that there’s not a lot of meat on this particular bone. Nothing is imminent, just international break quiet time news that Orlando’s people have talked with Richy’s people. So let’s not put the cart in front of the horse just yet. That said, is this PLAUSIBLE? Well, sure! Why not! MLS seems like the kind of league that would suit a 29-year-old Richarlison quite well. He’d definitely take one of Orlando’s Designated Player slots, one of which is held by 34-year-old forward Colombian forward Luis Muriel. And if Orlando City is interested, my guess is that there’s probably other teams, both in MLS and elsewhere, sniffing around.
Like it or not we’re going to have to start thinking about life after Richarlison. This is the first semi-real link I’ve seen that potentially points to that future.