Neymar to Major League Soccer could be picking up steam as the Al Hilal forward is in talks with three MLS teams including the Chicago Fire, according to ESPN. The 32-year-old Brazilian hasn’t featured much for Al Hilal due to suffering injuries to his knee and hamstring but given his pedigree and name recognition, plenty of teams would be interested in his services if he were to become available.
The most obvious fit would be Inter Miami where Neymar has spoken about wanting to reunite with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, and Suarez has also spoken about how he’d love to also play with Neymar again. The trio set the soccer world alight when they were together at Barcelona about a decade ago, but Inter Miami’s manager Javier Mascherano downplayed the possibility during MLS media day.
“We cannot talk about Ney because we have nothing about him,” Mascherano said. “Obviously, Ney is a great player, everyone or every coach in the world wants him but at the moment, you know the rules, the MLS rules about the salary cap. So, for us in this moment. it’s impossible…”
The important words there are, “at the moment.” since then MLS has already unveiled a new mechanism that teams can use to gain funds on domestic transfers, there’s nothing preventing Inter Miami from clearing salaries to pursue players if they’d like to. Chicago have been busy under Gregg Berhalter preparing for the season but the club only has one designated player currently so they’d have an easy time adding any player that they could convince to join their project.
Of course, convincing Neymar and finding a suitable solution with Al Hilal are no easy feats and that’s what any team would need to do in order to add him. Then there’s also balancing that spending with his injury history. Neymar has only made seven appearances for Al Hilal since joining the club in 2023, registering one goal and two assists. Still not healthy from his current hamstring injury, the beginning of his tenure with any club would be a rehab stint.
While Neymar would surely be eying a spot with Brazil at the 2026 World Cup, getting back to his best for a club will be critical in doing that. It seems like there’s a growing chance that that place could be in Major League Soccer where the transfer window will open on Jan. 31.
