How Orlando City’s Players Fared In Transfermarkt’s Latest Market Valuations

The World Cup is finally here and in full swing, and the soccer on the field has been thoroughly enjoyable through its first week. The “home” North American teams are off to a good start, with dominating wins by Mexico and the United States, a draw from Canada, and good showings from Haiti and Curaçao, even though both teams lost (Panama had not played as of this article’s completion). Curaçao’s goal against Germany was one of the moments of the tournament so far, even in what turned out to be a thumping defeat, and if the next few weeks can match the first week, we are in for a great tournament.

And thank goodness for that, because Orlando City and the Orlando Pride are still on hiatus, leaving only Orlando City B in action locally, as MLS NEXT Pro continues to channel its inner Mcfadden & Whitehead, reminding everyone that “ain’t no stoppin’ us now.”

And speaking of on the move, several Lions who moved on from Orlando contributed majorly to their nation’s opening games, with Alex Freeman (U.S.) and Richie Laryea (Canada) earning starts and Cyle Larin (Canada) coming off the bench. All three were excellent during their time on the field, and Larin and Freeman each recorded a World Cup goal contribution (goal for Larin and assist for Freeman) on the same day. Laryea really broke out after leaving Orlando City (much like another L-named former Lion on a World Cup roster, Brazil’s Léo Pereira), but Larin and Freeman were excellent in Orlando before transferring elsewhere, which leads me to Transfermarkt, the go-to website for player valuations.

The analysts at Transfermarkt generally update their player valuations twice per year, with occasional additional valuations upon player transfers. Fortunately for us during this dearth of Orlando City soccer, those updates happen in June and December, so there are brand new valuations for the Lions (and most of the players in MLS) as of the last few weeks.

Keep in mind these are estimated player valuations if another team would try to buy that player, and not salaries or estimates of worth as it relates to Orlando City’s 2026 team. Robin Jansson, for example, is valued at a lower amount than Iago and considerably lower than David Brekalo, even though the Orlando City coaching staff likely rates him as their top center back on this year’s team. Jansson is nearing retirement age, while Iago and Brekalo both have many years left in their careers, hence their larger value than Jansson.

The calculations behind Transfermarkt‘s estimated valuations are proprietary and are not shared on the site, but here is the list of Orlando City’s top players by position, and their corresponding rank among all MLS players at that position:

*GK=goalkeeper, LB = left back, CB = center back, RB = right back, DM = defensive midfielder, CM = central midfielder, LW = left wing, RW = right wing, AM = attacking midfielder, and CF = center forward. Those positions were assigned by Transfermarkt. I cannot tell you why Braian Ojeda is a defensive midfielder and Atuesta is a central midfielder. Also, in a somewhat surprising categorization, attacking midfielders are classified as midfielders and not attackers, which will become relevant below.

For those who are interested, the full list of Orlando City valuations can be found here; just know that the numbers will look different because the site tracks valuations in Euros and I did the conversion to dollars for the table above. Putting that mathematics degree to good use!

On the whole, Transfermarkt values Orlando City’s roster at $56.6 million, with goalkeepers at $2.3 million, defenders at $11 million, midfielders at $24.1 million, and attackers at $19.3 million, respectively (there is some rounding in there, which is why when you did the math in your head, and I know you did, you summed those values to $56.7 million instead of $56.6 million). Among all MLS teams, those positional sums rank 11th, 19th, fourth, and 20th, in the same positional order. Orlando City is not the only team that is about to add a new signing once the secondary transfer window opens up, but Antoine Griezmann is currently valued at $9.27 million and adding that to the existing $19.3 million of Orlando City’s attacking group would vault them from 20th to sixth in attack and into fifth overall across all rosters.

Griezmann is not yet on the roster, however, so he is not included in the chart below, which displays the MLS rankings based on Transfermarkt‘s valuations. Orlando City ranks 26th in the league in points earned per game, but the Lions are doing it with a roster that is estimated as having the 12th-most value, and it would be a lot nicer if those two were flipped, or if the Lions could just play better and pick up more points. It is the hope that kills you keeps you going.

Here is the current state of Transfermarkt‘s valuations (I combined goalkeepers and defenders into one grouping):

Miami dominates this list, as its roster contains three of the league’s seven highest-valued players, a group of three that by themselves are more valuable than the bottom eight teams in MLS. The less said about them the better, so that is enough on the Herons.

As previously mentioned, Orlando City’s midfield, featuring the league’s 14th-highest valued player Martín Ojeda, is where most of the team’s value is. Pašalić leads the attacking group at $7.53 million (26th overall in MLS), nearly double the estimated value of the next highest attacker Tiago, and Brekalo is in a similar boat as the defender with the most value ($4.06 million), nearly twice that of Crépeau ($2.09 million) and more than double any other back line player. Adding Griezmann will give the Lions some bite on the field and also in these rankings, as McGuire has the most value on the club but ranks only 35th among forwards, and his value has fallen 60% from where it was in June of 2024 ($5 million).

Among the 26 players that Transfermarkt valued for Orlando City, 16 of them had valuations two seasons ago as well. Eight players have increased in value from 2024, three are at the same valuation, and five have decreased. As much as I would like to put stock into these valuations, as Transfermarkt is one of the most trusted sites in the business, a certain former Lion named Freeman is on a rocket ship trajectory in his career and yet is currently only valued at the same dollar amount as Atuesta, Brekalo, Braian Ojeda, and Tiago. Positional differences account for some part of it, but I think few teams in the world would actually value all of those players the same, with Freeman commanding far more than any of those other four players.

In the end, a player’s value is determined not by a website but by what one team is willing to pay for them, and with the MLS secondary transfer window set to open in a little less than a month on July 13, we will soon see if any current Lions are transferred out, and at what price, and if there will be any new Lions joining the team aside from Griezmann.

Orlando City got younger and, according to Transfermarkt, more valuable from 2025 to 2026, but while we as fans enjoy the discourse and rumors about buying and selling players, what we really want are wins and banners. I do not think San Jose’s fans care one bit that their team is rated as having the third-least value in MLS, the Earthquakes are averaging earning the third-most points per match, picking up three points in most of their games.

The Lions still have 19 regular-season games remaining, and it would be great if by the next update from Transfermarkt in December the roster will be full of players who increased their valuations after a scorching run to close out the season. Once again, it is the hope that kills you keeps you going.

Vamos Orlando!