MLS adventure shakes
The Müller deal could still fail to do so
07/29/2025 – 8:58 a.m.Reading time: 3 min.
After 25 years at Bayern, Thomas Müller decided to move to North America to the MLS. The planned deal could still burst.
What does Sepp Maier think about Thomas Müller’s change to the North American Major League Soccer (MLS)? “That is his matter. He can do what he wants,” said the former goalkeeper and captain of FC Bayern to T-Online. “If he still feels fit for the operetta league, then he should go over. The Franz has always said that this is an operetta league. Nothing has changed.”
By “the Franz” Maier, of course, means the club legend of the record champions who died almost one and a half years ago at the age of 78: Franz Beckenbauer. “Franz also played in the operetta league to end his career,” Maier recalled from Beckenbauer’s US adventure at New York Cosmos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
42 years later, Müller is now changing in the footsteps of the “Kaiser” after his 25 years at Bavaria. Like Beckenbauer once, Müller also decided to write the final chapter of his career in the American league.
With a video published on Saturday, in which he announced that it would be “over the big pond” on Monday, Müller finally confirmed this. Instead of Bavaria’s partner club Los Angeles FC, his desired destination has already been found with the Vancouver Whitecaps – in Canada and not, as always reported in the past few weeks.
According to T-Online information, Müller is already completely in agreement with Vancouver. The 35-year-old is to sign a contract in the Canadian metropolis until the end of 2026. The only three positions for so-called “Designated Players”, which can earn per MLS club above the given salary limit, are not an insurmountable obstacle. Because: Until August 21, the Whitecaps can still sign a third top player for their squad, provided they are a professional, the younger is younger than 22 years. However, it remains questionable whether the miller change actually occurs.
The big problem with the Müller deal, as T-Online learned, are the so-called “Discovery Rights”, ie the transfer rights to Müller, which Cincinnati FC had secured. It is quite possible that the change still fails. Because of this fear, according to “Bild”, the MLS has now even intervened in the negotiations as a mediator to prevent Müller from bursting one of the greatest transfers in the league history.
The problem: Vancouver should have to pay more than the $ 400,000 that La Galaxy 2024 transferred to Charlotte FC when signing Marco Reus. The MLS now wants to negotiate with Cincinnati in order to reconcile a replacement for Vancouver.
As T-Online knows, it failed exactly because Müller’s transfer to Bayern’s partner club LAFC. After Müller canceled Cincinnati, the club now demands an exceptionally high sum for the transfer of transfer rights to Müller. That is why LAFC Müller ultimately canceled – and not, as was partially reported, vice versa. Such a record sum that Cincinnati calls for Müller was apparently not worth the US club.