Inter Miami has De Bruyne’s MLS discovery rights – and could sign him this summer

Manchester City star Kevin De Bruyne could become teammates with Lionel Messi at Inter Miami this summer in a move that would send shockwaves around MLS.

The South Florida side holds De Bruyne’s MLS discovery rights, which gives Inter the first right to negotiate with the Belgian star, according to multiple sources briefed on the potential move.

De Bruyne, 33, announced Friday that he would leave Man City at the end of the season, after what has been one of the most remarkable runs in Premier League history. The midfielder has won 19 trophies and contributed to 187 goals in his 10 seasons at the club.

His success prompted City manager Pep Guardiola to advocate for a statue of the midfielder.

“Listen, I don’t know, but I will bet a lot of money that it is going to happen,” Guardiola said at his news conference ahead of last weekend’s Manchester derby against United at Old Trafford. “I don’t know, but of course, come on, he deserves to be in this level.”

While De Bruyne had a flirtation with MLS expansion side San Diego FC last year, the club is not in the picture for his signature at this time. Instead, it’s Messi’s star-laden side that has come to the fore.

How Inter Miami could sign De Bruyne and stay within MLS roster rules

Fitting De Bruyne into the team will require some flexibility in terms of the payday involved.

In Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets, Inter Miami already has the maximum of three designated players (DPs), the roster designation that allows players to be paid beyond the league’s salary cap – with team owners footing the overages. That means De Bruyne would have a hard cap on how much he could be paid in 2025.

The most likely scenario for Miami signing De Bruyne comes via the path once taken by the LA Galaxy with Zlatan Ibrahimović. The legendary Swedish forward joined the LA Galaxy in spring 2018 after his contract was terminated by Manchester United. At the time, the Galaxy had three DPs: forward Giovani dos Santos and midfielders Jonathan dos Santos and Romain Alessandrini. Ibrahimovic signed a two-year deal paying him $3 million, which brought him in using a cap tool called “targeted allocation money.”

After his first season with the Galaxy, however, that deal was torn up and Ibrahimović signed a new deal paying him $7.2 million. That caused some MLS teams to cry foul, saying that the Galaxy had skirted the rules with a handshake agreement to give Ibrahimović a new deal after the first season. (Any automatic trigger or option would have counted toward Ibrahimović’s cap number and caused him to be a DP in 2018.)

Later, upon leaving MLS, Ibrahimović also was named as part-owner of Swedish giant Hammarby, which is owned by AEG, the company that also owns the Galaxy.

Miami has ample cap space to do a similar TAM-level deal if De Bruyne is willing to side-step DP status in his first half season in MLS. In the league’s last club roster profile release in March, Miami had more than $3.15 million in general allocation money, which is essentially extra salary cap space.

The club has signed two players, Baltasar Rodríguez and Allen Obando, since that release of cap information, though both came in on loan deals.

If De Bruyne signs as a “TAM player,” he could not make more than $871,875 in 2025, which is half of the maximum TAM charge of $1,743,750. Budget charges are annualized in MLS.

With this summer’s Club World Cup coming to the U.S., De Bruyne would only be able to participate with Manchester City, though he would have to sign an extension to do so. His contract expires on June 30, about halfway through the tournament.

He would be ineligible to play for Inter Miami until July 24, when MLS’s secondary transfer window opens.

Reports have also connected De Bruyne with a potential move to Saudi Arabia, and another European suitor could come into the picture. If he does opt for MLS and Inter Miami, signing De Bruyne with an eye on giving him a new contract in 2026 would put Inter Miami in a bit of an interesting position going into the World Cup year.

All four of its star players — the quartet of former Barcelona stars Messi, Alba, Busquets and Luis Suárez — are out of contract at the end of the season. In order to open a DP spot for De Bruyne, one of Messi, Alba or Busquets would have to agree to a non-DP deal, or not re-sign in Miami, in order to accommodate De Bruyne taking that DP spot.

Alba, 36, occupied a TAM spot for his first season-and-a-half in Miami. Busquets will turn 37 this summer.

De Bruyne would certainly add more attacking firepower to Inter Miami, though that might not be exactly what the Herons need at the moment. Their 12 goals are tied for sixth-best in MLS. Last year, it was defensive issues that caused Miami to falter in the playoffs.

Still, it’s not often a player of De Bruyne’s quality is available to an MLS team – let alone one that already has four global stars on its roster.

(Top photo: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images)