Sporting Kansas City held exclusive negotiating rights to Cristiano Ronaldo. Meetings took place over a month. A deal looked possible. Then it didn't happen — and Ronaldo flew to Saudi Arabia instead.
That's just one of several near-misses detailed in a new report outlining how MLS came agonisingly close to landing some of football's most recognisable names. Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Neymar were all genuine targets at different points, and all three slipped through the league's fingers for different reasons.
Ronaldo: the Kansas City almost-deal
In 2022, Ronaldo was 37 and restless at Juventus. LA Galaxy and Inter Miami were both linked, but it was Sporting Kansas City that moved furthest. They had Ronaldo on their discovery list — the MLS mechanism that gives a club first negotiating rights — and spent weeks in talks with his representatives.
Two walls stopped it. Financing a deal for the most commercially powerful player in football was always going to be a stretch for an MLS club. And Ronaldo himself needed convincing. In the end, Al-Nassr's offer — reportedly north of €200m per year — made both problems irrelevant. Kansas City never stood a chance of matching that.
Modric's situation was more straightforward. As his Real Madrid contract wound down in 2024, San Diego FC and Inter Miami both registered interest in the Croatian. He chose to extend at the Bernabeu for one final season as captain, then left for AC Milan in July 2025. MLS got a look-in. It wasn't close enough.
The Messi reunion that Neymar ended himself
Inter Miami's vision was arguably the most compelling of the three. Reuniting Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar — Barcelona's front three from 2014 to 2017 — in South Florida would have been genuinely unprecedented in MLS history. Two-thirds of it already happened. Neymar was the missing piece.
He signed a one-year extension with Santos in January 2026 instead. With that deal expiring in December and retirement widely expected to follow, the window has effectively closed. The reunion isn't happening.
San Diego FC also chased Sergio Ramos and Keylor Navas without success, adding to a list of high-profile targets the league has pursued and lost.
- Ronaldo to Sporting Kansas City — collapsed over finances and player reluctance
- Modric to San Diego FC / Inter Miami — chose Real Madrid extension, then AC Milan
- Neymar to Inter Miami — Santos extension effectively ended the possibility
- Sergio Ramos to San Diego FC — no deal materialised
- Keylor Navas to San Diego FC — no deal materialised
The pattern here isn't failure. It's ambition. MLS is consistently in the room for players of this profile — that's a different league from the one David Beckham arrived in back in 2007. Whether they can actually close on a player of that tier before their best years are gone is the question that keeps following the league around.
For now, the answer is still no.
