Atlanta United is finalizing a deal to acquire Swiss international forward Breel Embolo from Rennes, with the transfer fee reportedly landing around $18 million. The move comes as the club sits dead last in the 15-team Eastern Conference with a 3-12-3 record and just 12 points, a stretch bad enough to push the front office toward one of the most expensive roster moves in club history.
According to Reuters, the reported $18 million fee for Embolo was first cited by The Athletic. At that price, the 29-year-old would rank among the five most expensive incoming transfers in MLS history, based on the reported figure. That places him in rarefied company: South Korean star Son Heung-min's $26 million move from Tottenham Hotspur to LAFC last August still stands as the priciest deal the league has ever completed, followed by Atlanta's own $22 million purchase of Emmanuel Latte Lath earlier this year, according to Sports Illustrated.
Embolo spent last season with Rennes, making 34 appearances and contributing 10 goals and three assists in his first year with the Ligue 1 club, per Reuters reporting. He previously played for Basel, Schalke 04, Borussia Mönchengladbach, and AS Monaco before joining Rennes. For Switzerland, he has made 92 career appearances and scored 26 goals, and he was part of the Swiss squad at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, where his tournament ended controversially when he was sent off during a 3-1 extra-time loss to Argentina in the quarterfinals.
A Struggling Club Bets Big Again
The pursuit of Embolo underscores just how far Atlanta United has fallen this season under returning head coach Gerardo “Tata” Martino, who came back to the club last November on a two-year contract through 2027 — seven years after leading the franchise to its 2018 MLS Cup title. The station's earlier reporting noted Martino took over after Atlanta finished 14th in the Eastern Conference in 2025 under Ronny Deila, and this year's results have been even more dire, with the club mired at the bottom of the standings entering its Saturday night home match against the New York Red Bulls.
Atlanta's willingness to spend big again comes despite a rocky return on its last marquee investment. Latte Lath arrived in February 2025 for a then-club-record $22 million, but he has managed just two goals and one assist across 14 regular-season appearances in 2026, according to MLSSoccer.com. That underwhelming output, following a career in which Latte Lath scored 29 goals in 67 matches for Middlesbrough, is a key reason the front office went looking for another attacking option.
Atlanta Beat Out European Suitors
Before turning its full attention to Embolo, Atlanta's front office reportedly considered other marquee strikers during the July window, including Uruguay's Darwin Núñez and Belgium's Romelu Lukaku, as the club searched for a designated player capable of turning its season around, per World Soccer Talk. Embolo himself drew interest from a crowded field of European clubs this summer, including Serie A sides Como, Milan, and Napoli, along with Bournemouth, Hull City, and Ipswich Town from the English pyramid, according to reporting relayed by OneFootball.
The timing of the deal is possible in part because of a rule change: the MLS secondary transfer window opened July 13 and runs through September 2, the first time in nearly two decades the league's summer registration period has stretched into September to better align with Europe's top leagues, per MLSSoccer.com. Atlanta's history of aggressive spending on both ends of the transfer ledger is well established — the club still holds the record for the largest outgoing MLS transfer fee, having sold Miguel Almirón to Newcastle United for $26 million back in January 2019, during Martino's first stint as manager.
Whether Embolo can help reverse Atlanta's fortunes down the stretch remains to be seen. It is not yet clear whether he will occupy a Designated Player slot alongside Latte Lath and Almirón, how quickly he might be integrated into Martino's system, or whether his arrival can spark any kind of late-season turnaround for a club that has spent much of 2026 near the bottom of the table.
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