Winning MLS Cup brings only a couple guaranteed returns: the cup itself and a cash prize ($300,000, roughly the salary of one MLS backup defender). Historically, it has also ushered in a near-mandatory squad rebuild, a consequence of MLS’s parity-driven design. With rare exceptions, great teams find it nigh-on-impossible to keep the band together, or to improve on what they already have.
Not so for Inter Miami this year. After a slew of high-powered offseason additions capped by Friday’s $15m capture of Monterrey striker Germán Berterame, a historically fortunate franchise has gotten even better; completely unlike the 29 MLS Cup champions that preceded them.
The trend had persisted for obvious reasons. MLS is a league with a strict roster-building rulebook. Teams can sign six marquee players who hit the cap at different levels, categorized as either designated players (“the Beckham rule”) or U-22 initiative signings (the … Jhon Duran rule?).
Often, signing a new designated player leads to the most dramatic changes to a team’s potential. But allocating those spots can require trade-offs. Nashville SC, for example, had an open designated player (DP) spot this offseason when defensive bedrock Walker Zimmerman left at the end of his contract after an injury-hit season. Rather than using that spot on another center-back, Nashville brought in one of the league’s best chance creators, Argentinian winger Cristian Espinoza. The move should make their attack even better, but it took a potential sacrifice along the back line to make it happen.
Success throws in other inconvenient wrinkles. Trophy- winning players enter the offseason with evidence of their value, and understandably seek raises. The salary cap kicks in, and soon only the most vital members of the squad stick around as teams reconstruct the supporting cast with new, cheaper alternatives.
In addition to this, and unlike other American sports that have similar systems, MLS teams operate in a global marketplace. Good MLS players often get offers from overseas, each of which could offer something different competitively than they’re getting at their current club. This dynamic has taken hold domestically as well, with MLS’s new “cash transfers” rule creating a suddenly rich internal market for players where one barely existed before.
Last winter saw a dramatic version of this ritual. A decade on from their most recent title, the LA Galaxy went all-in on 2024 and were rewarded with the franchise’s record-extending sixth MLS Cup triumph. A fall off was likely inevitable once star midfielder Riqui Puig tore his ACL in the conference final, but the real hammer blows came later. Star striker Dejan Joveljic was sold to Sporting Kansas City. Two of the three midfielders who started MLS Cup quickly departed, while homegrown starlet Jalen Neal was traded to recoup funds for the rebuild. The team found thriftier alternatives, and began the 2025 season with a historic stretch of futility.
One year on, Miami’s situation could hardly be more different. The Herons have lost two mainstays due to retirement (Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets), and another (Luis Suárez) figured to return only in a rotational role. That left them with big questions at left-back, defensive midfield and striker, to go with needed improvement from one of the league’s worst goalkeeping depth charts.
Unlike every other MLS Cup champion before them, though, they also have Lionel Messi. This offseason, the Argentinian has proven to have gravity enough to get players to accept less salary than they otherwise would have to join him in Miami; and the club is reaping the benefits.
Their issues in goal were immediately solved by signing Dayne St Clair, Canada’s likely World Cup starter fresh off of claiming goalkeeper of the year honors. The St Paul Pioneer Press reported that his previous club, Minnesota United, offered a seven-figure salary but saw their star keeper join Miami for “significantly less” than the Loons’ proposal.
Ex-Tottenham man Sergio Reguilón replaces his compatriot at left-back, while defensive midfielder David Ayala and defender Micael bring high-end MLS experience to South Beach. And at striker, Miami have not nickel-and-dimed: in comes Berterame, who has been one of Liga MX’s best strikers since joining Monterrey in 2022.
Any one of these signings might have counted as a marquee addition for a number of MLS teams. For Miami, they simply fill needs.
These type of sweetheart deals are not necessarily new for Miami. This past season, despite not having an open DP slot, Miami were able to work with Atlético Madrid on a loan deal that kept Rodrigo de Paul below the designated player threshold until the MLS season ended in December, when an obligation to buy the Argentina international for a reported €15m was activated. Now, he is one of the three marquee players on the team, and theoretically earning a salary a bit closer to what he earned in Spain. His exact compensation will be made public when the MLS Players’ Association releases its salary data in the spring. His 2025 hit, as announced on 1 October, was a base salary of $1.5m – just below the designated player threshold of $1.74m – but netted a guaranteed compensation (factoring for marketing bonuses and agent’s fees) of $3.6m from Miami.
Simply, Miami can abide by MLS’s infamous rulebook in a way no rival can mimic. They don’t need to make the trade-offs that face the other 29 teams in MLS, as well as much of the world. The chance to play with Messi factors into what Miami’s HR may as well call a “total compensation package.” They can sign the league’s best goalkeeper at a cut rate, even if it may harm the market valuation for good MLS goalkeepers moving forward (a scenario Major League Baseball’s players union obstructed two decades ago when Alex Rodriguez had eyes for Boston).
The pull of Miami is complicating their rivals’ offseasons, too. Before focusing on Berterame, Miami reportedly tried prying three-time Best XI winger Denis Bouanga from Los Angeles FC. Never mind that LAFC just signed the second-most famous player in MLS, Son Heung-min. Instead, Bouanga has been cryptically reposting insinuations that he feels let down by his club.
Then compare Miami’s offseason to that of the runners-up from Vancouver, whose roster includes its own certified modern legend, Thomas Müller. Two of their three most dynamic wingers have left in the weeks following MLS Cup, with Jayden Nelson traded to Austin and Ali Ahmed sold to Norwich City. Eighteen-year-old homegrown Rayan Elloumi is likely to take on many of their former minutes. Their star defender (Tristan Blackmon) reportedly yearns to join a club closer to palm trees.
On one hand, it’s an exciting test of MLS’s rules and restrictions. But don’t misinterpret this as evidence of a new era for MLS squad-building. Whenever Messi plays his final game, Miami will almost certainly face the same roadblocks that the other 29 teams must overcome in order to succeed.
Until then, it’s an invaluable variable that the rest of the league simply can’t compete with.
