Messi and De Bruyne together? How Miami could finagle MLS roster rules | OneFootball

The rumor mill surrounding a potential Kevin De Bruyne move to MLS had already been buzzing before the Daily Mirror's report Monday that Inter Miami was already in the process of offering the Belgian star a contract.

De Bruyne announced last week that this would be his last season for Manchester City, and along with the Saudi Pro League, MLS has emerged as a likely designation for the soon-to-be-34-year-old this summer.

But most had connected De Bruyne potentially with sister Manchester City club New York City FC or maybe expansion San Diego FC, not a Miami squad that is already embarassed with the riches of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba and Sergio Busquets.

And as those familiar with MLS roster rules have pointed out, Miami has already used its allotment of three Designated Player deals -- on which the club can spend an unlimited amount on contract costs to secure a player -- to Messi, Busquets and Alba.

That makes finding a way to add De Bruyne difficult and potentially unlikely. But it's not impossible. Here's a couple ways Miami could potentially work around the Designated Player issue.

Buy down Jordi Alba to a GAM deal

Inter Miami CF v Toronto FC | Leonardo Fernandez/GettyImages

The most straight-forward way Miami might be able to add De Bruyne is by buying down its contract with Jordi Alba out of the DP categorization using allocation money.

Allocation money is funds teams can use to buy down a portion of a player's contract to not count against the salary cap. The distribution system across the leauge is a little complicated, but in early March we learned that Miami was actually near the top of the league in terms of General Allocation Money remaining for 2025, with more than $3 million on hand.

Some of that may have been used on more recent deals to sign Baltasar Rodriguez from Argentina's Racing Club and Allen Obando from Ecuador's SC Barcelona. But there could still be plenty on hand to negotiate Alba's contract into the non-Designated Player range, given that he was paid only $1.5 million in guaranteed compensation last season, according to the MLS Players' Association.

Miami could also recoup more allocation money by finding a trade partner to deal goalkeeper Drake Callender and wide man Julian Gressel, both of whom have been rumored to be on the market.

An MLS rule change

Manchester United FC v Manchester City FC - Premier League | Carl Recine/GettyImages

If De Bruyne truly indicates that he wants to come to MLS, but only if he can play in Miami, it's well in the realm of possibility that MLS could consider a rule change to allow teams a fourth Designated Player contract.

The league already enacted a minor roster rules tweak last summer, that allowed teams to choose between an allotment of three DP contracts and three U-22 Intiative contracts, or two DP contracts and four U-22 initiative contracts. Maybe MLS tweaks that slightly further to allow four DPs and two U-22 contracts as a third option.

Miami is currently using the three/three model, and has all its U-22 contracts filled as well, but those players could also be candidates to move on in the summer window to make room for a theoretical fourth DP slot. Telasco Segovia in particular has probably seen his stock improve already from his time in Miami.

Some sort of sign-and-trade arrangment

Atlanta United v New York City FC | Andrew J. Clark/ISI Photos/GettyImages

The third -- and probably least likely -- way Miami could make room to add De Bruyne is to reach an agreement to acquire him from another club that allows his DP tag to count toward another team's allotment.

It's unclear if and how this could work exactly. But there is some precedent from this past offseason, when Atlanta United acquired Mateusz Klich in a trade from D.C. that left the Polish international still counting toward D.C.'s DP allotment.

Of course, that's much easier with a player like Klich, who earned just over $2 million in guaranteed compensation last season, than it would be for De Bruyne, who you'd have to suspect would be at worst MLS' second-highest-paid player behind Messi.

Any club agreeing to such a pact would probably have to receive several players from Miami as part of the pact, as well as potentially deferred General Allocation Money considerations for several seasons. From a distance, making a move to acquire more money Allocation Money to buy down Alba's contract would seem a lot easier.