After announcing that he will leave Man City at the end of the season, many new destinations are opening up for Kevin De Bruyne. 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 has the basis to become a reality because the American team has put De Bruyne’s name on the list of priority negotiations.
Each MLS team will have this right to enter the names of 5 players they want to recruit. Accordingly, other teams will not have the right to negotiate with this player. Inter Miami had De Bruyne’s name on 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 exchanged signals. However, everything is now in the past and the replacement name is Inter Miami.
The obstacle for De Bruyne to join Inter Miami at this time is that the team already has enough designated player (DP) slots, which are Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets. DP is a group of players who can receive a higher salary than what MLS stipulates. Therefore, if De Bruyne comes to Inter Miami, he will only receive the salary cap according to MLS regulations this year. However, De Bruyne’s case can still be circumvented with Inter Miami in the same way that Zlatan Ibrahimovic joined LA Galaxy in 2018. The Swedish striker joined LA Galaxy after being terminated by Man United. At that time, LA Galaxy had 3 DPs: Giovani dos Santos, Jonathan dos Santos and Romain Alessandrini. Ibrahimovic then signed a 2-year contract with a salary of 3 million USD.
However, in the first season with LA Galaxy, that deal was canceled. After that, both sides signed a new deal worth 7.2 million USD/year. This action of LA Galaxy was opposed by many MLS teams, who thought that the team at Dignity Health Sports Stadium circumvented the law, pretending to sign the first year according to the regulations and then canceling it to sign a new one and possibly pay Ibrahimovic a higher amount.
In MLS’s report on club profiles released in March 2025, Inter Miami had more than $3.15 million in shared allocation money, essentially additional salary cap space. The team has signed Baltasar Rodríguez and Allen Obando since the salary cap information was released, though both arrived on loan.
If De Bruyne were to join Inter Miami in the normal way now, he would earn no more than $871,875 by 2025. On top of that, if De Bruyne wants to play in the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, he can only play for Manchester City, even if that would force the Belgian midfielder to sign a new contract. De Bruyne’s contract expires on June 30, when the FIFA Club World Cup is just 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, “Trung Kevin”‘s role is not necessarily number 1. The team currently owns the former Barcelona super quartet of Messi, Suarez, Alba and Busquets. Last season, the reason why Inter Miami did not achieve good results was due to the defense while De Bruyne is an attacking midfielder.
