Immediately after announcing his departure from Man City, Kevin De Bruyne was rumored to join Inter Miami to become Lionel Messi's teammate. This rumor is well-founded to have come true because the US team has included De Bruyne in the priority negotiation list.
Each MLS team will have the right to name the five players they are recruiting. Accordingly, other teams will not be given priority to negotiate with this player. Inter Miami included De Bruyne in the list before the Belgian star said goodbye to Man City. Therefore, the opportunity now belongs to them.
Last year, there were rumors that De Bruyne would join San Diego FC after both sides were said to have signaled. However, everything is now gone and the replacement name is Inter Miami.
The current barrier for De Bruyne to join Inter Miami is that the team has enough designated players (DPs), which are Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. DP is a group of players who could be paid more than MLS has set. Therefore, if De Bruyne comes to Inter Miami, he will only receive the salary ceiling according to MLS regulations this year.
However, the De Bruyne case could still have a way to avoid Inter Miami with Zlatan Ibrahimovic joining LA Galaxy in 2018. The Swedish striker has joined LA Galaxy after his contract was terminated by Man United. At that time, LA Galaxy had 3 DP: Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos and Romain Alessandrini. Ibrahimovic then signed a two-year contract with a salary of 3 million USD.
However, in his first season with LA Galaxy, that deal was canceled. After that, the two sides signed a new agreement worth 7.2 million USD/year. LA Galaxy's move was opposed by many MLS teams when they thought that the home team at Dignity Health Sports circumvented the law, pretending to sign a first-year contract in accordance with regulations to cancel it to sign a new contract and could give Ibrahimovic a higher number.
In the MLS report on club records published in March 2025, Inter Miami has more than 3.15 million USD in general allocation, which is basically the space for limiting additional salaries. The club have signed Baltasar Rodriguez and Allen Obando since the salary cap was announced, although both have come on loan.
If De Bruyne joins Inter Miami as usual at the moment, he cannot earn more than 871,875 USD in 2025. Above all, if De Bruyne wants to play in the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, he can only wear the Manchester City shirt even though this will force the Belgian midfielder to sign an extension. De Bruyne's contract will expire on June 30, when the FIFA Club World Cup is only halfway through.
De Bruyne will not be eligible to play for Inter Miami until July 24, when the MLS transfer window opens. Not to mention that if he comes to Inter Miami, the role of "Central Kevin" is not necessarily number 1. The team currently owns Barcelona's once-cks of the super-class, Messi, Suarez, Alba and Busquets. Last season, the reason why Inter Miami did not achieve good results was in defense while De Bruyne was an attacking midfielder.
