The Beefy Swede has played his last match in purple. Orlando City captain and defender Robin Jansson has announced his retirement from soccer, with the club posting the news this morning. After eight seasons as a Lion, the former Swedish international ends his final year in Orlando on the injured list after undergoing foot surgery.

The 34-year-old calls it a career after becoming the club’s longest-serving player ever, setting career Orlando City records for games played (263), games started (256), and minutes (23,050) across all competitions.

“First, I want to say it’s been a pleasure to wear this jersey and fight for this crest,” Jansson said in a club press release. “When I signed here eight seasons ago, I didn’t know I would be here for that long. Together, we set new standards and brought home the club’s first trophy of the MLS era. I was proud and honored to be given the captain’s armband along the way. I’ve really enjoyed it and have been doing what I love for so many years at the same club. I have been treated very well during my time here, and it has become a place I can call home and will always be connected to. But now it’s time to step aside and retire from the game I grew up loving and dreaming about. Yes, I’ve been living my dream. I want to say a huge thank you to the technical staff and players I have worked with throughout the years for helping make me better. I wish the club nothing but success in the future, and you will always have a supporter in me.”

Orlando City signed Jansson on March 12, 2019 from AIK in the Allsvenskan — Sweden’s top-flight league. He became an immediate starter for the team and has since established himself as a fan favorite and the best center back in the club’s history. While he typically wasn’t the tallest or fastest defender on the pitch, Jansson’s hard work, anticipation and ability to read the game, and attention to details and fundamentals often served him well as the leader of the Orlando City defense. Going the other way, Jansson was adept at sending accurate long balls with his left foot to ignite a sudden transition opportunity.

The club signed Jansson to a new two-year deal through 2022 on Jan. 13, 2021, which included a pair of club option years. The Swedish defender extended his stay in Orlando even further on Feb. 6, 2024, signing a new contract through 2025 with an option for 2026. That club declined that option last off-season but signed him to a new (presumably more cap-friendly) deal through 2027 on Dec. 1, 2025.

“Robin will always hold a special place in the history of this club, and for me personally, because he was the first player I signed for Orlando City,” Sporting Director and General Manager Ricardo Moreira said in the club’s press release. “From the moment he arrived, he embraced everything this club stands for and grew into one of the most important figures in our history. He is a club legend, not only because of his performances and accomplishments, but because of the person, leader and teammate he has been throughout his time here. We love Robin and his family, and we wish them nothing but happiness and success in this next chapter of his life.”

Jansson, who took over as club captain in 2024, has been a part of every Orlando City team that has made the MLS Cup playoffs, starting in his second season with the Lions. He also helped Orlando win the 2022 U.S. Open Cup — the first trophy the Lions have won since jumping from the USL to MLS in 2015. During Jansson’s time in purple, the club reached its first final (in the 2020 MLS is Back Tournament) and qualified twice for Concacaf Champions Cup.

The defender has scored six goals and added seven assists in MLS regular-season play and has appeared in 12 MLS playoff matches (all starts). Jansson’s first goal as a Lion came in a 3-1 road win over Memphis 901 FC in U.S. Open Cup play on June 12, 2019. He did not score in his final season as a Lion, but he logged a career-high three assists, and his three goal contributions were one shy of his career high of four (3 goals, 1 assist) in 2021.

Orlando City will recognize Jansson’s career with the club in a postgame ceremony after Saturday’s Decision Day match against the New England Revolution.

What It Means for Orlando City

Martin Ojeda and Antoine Griezmann are solid options to wear the captain’s armband in 2027, but that isn’t the most pressing concern.

It hasn’t been hard to see that Jansson has lost a step in recent years, owing not just to age but to a series of foot injuries, three of which have required surgery. Those injuries take their toll even on younger defenders.

Despite the nagging knocks, Jansson has been Orlando’s most dependable center back for years and it hasn’t been close. Both his time during Lamine Sane’s only healthy season in Orlando and Jansson’s multi-year partnership with Brazilian Antonio Carlos — now with Houston — produced some of the club’s best pairings in its history. The Lions will miss his leadership and his ability to keep the back line organized.

That said, Jansson’s departure will free up some money for a replacement. Prior to signing his new deal in December, the defender made a guaranteed $996,667. While the MLSPA site is currently down for maintenance, so I can’t accurately report his 2026 salary, it’s likely not too far off from that, so Orlando City should have a decent chunk of dough to spend on a new starting caliber center back.

And that new signing will be a vital part of the off-season puzzle. The back line has been a major part of a leaky defense in 2026, starting with the first three matches under Oscar Pareja and continuing to be a problem all year under Martin Perelman, although (usually) far more of one on the road than at home. It will be critical heading into 2027 to find the right player to replace a defender who will likely join Kaká in the club’s Legends Terrace at Inter.co Stadium.

Good morning, Mane Landers. It’s Friday and I feel fine. Probably because I’m off today and actually have an entire weekend off work, which is really rare for me. I’ll be riding in a Gravel bike race and seeing Hamilton all in the same day. What a long, strange trip it will be. Sadly, I won’t be able to make the match on Saturday due to these events, but that doesn’t mean you can’t go to the stadium. I’ll feel better knowing you’re there. Now, let’s get to the links.

Orlando City’s Day of Decision

Orlando City hosts the New England Revolution on Decision Day at Inter.co Stadium. The Lions have a chance to move back up to seventh in the Eastern Conference and out of the play-in match if they defeat the Revolution and get a little help from the teams above them in the standings. To be fair, it’s pretty astounding that Orlando City even made the playoffs, given how the season started, but adding Antoine Griezmann will do wonders for a struggling club. Here are the scenarios for all the Eastern Conference teams.

Ellis Climbs the Ranks

Justin Ellis is one of the young players making a name for himself on the USMNT. His stock has risen due to his performances for both club and country. While Ellis is poised to get more playing time, other older players may see less of the field as these younger players see more minutes. In fact, Ricardo Pepi was not called up for the roster, although it is in part to recover fully from a knock.

Orlando Pride Needs Abound

With the off-season kicking off for the Orlando Pride, there are plenty of questions to address if the club is to get back to 2024 levels. Obviously, Barbra Banda is the foundation, though Haley McCutcheon is also a player that can be foundational. In fact, McCutcheon is now the youngest player to reach 15,000 regular-season minutes in NWSL history. The Orlando Pride defensive midfielder is 30 years old.

Of course, we’ll be waiting for a coaching decision before most of these needs can be addressed.

Women’s Soccer Roundup

ACL injuries are too common in women’s soccer and the FA and WSL have launched a research project into why they happen and how to reduce them. Sadly, female players are two to six times more likely to suffer the injury than male players. Elsewhere, FIFA is in talks about restricting Olympic squads to U-23 players. Finally, as the NWSL playoffs approach, we take a look at how the teams that made it stack up.

Free Kicks

• Portugal legend Cristiano Ronaldo is retiring from international football. He is doing the honorable thing by returning the number seven for the next generation.
• Angel City FC has signed 17-year-old U.S. U-17 Youth National Team star forward Maddie DiMaria through 2030. DiMaria is the type of young talent that the Orlando Pride should be trying to find.

• Kohzo Tashima intends to run for FIFA president, challenging Gianni Infantino for the position.

• Concacaf is revamping the Gold Cup. The big change is that the group stage will now feature two eight-team groups instead of four groups of four.

That will do it for today. Check back as we get your ready for Orlando City’s match this weekend. Vamos Orlando!

Thanks to a big win over the weekend, Orlando City has qualified for the 2026 playoffs, marking the seventh consecutive season that the club will play in the MLS postseason. Of course, that big weekend win did not come from the Lions; rather, it was a win by Nashville, a team that is excellent at both offense and defense (wow, what a concept), that guaranteed Orlando City a spot in the playoffs. In the end, it does not matter how it happened, just that it happened, and so we can once again break out The Whispers’ “And the Beat Goes On,” as we will no longer need to whisper — careless, in the wind, to horses, or otherwise, about the chances of all three Orlando teams missing the playoffs.

While the Pride and Orlando City B are both already into their off-seasons, Orlando City is guaranteed to have at least two more games, with the regular-season finale on Decision Day Saturday and then at least one playoff game after that, depending on how the final seedings shake out. The Lions could finish as high as seventh or as low as ninth, and they do not control their own destiny for their seeding.

If Cincinnati loses, Columbus draws or loses, and Orlando City wins, the Lions jump to seventh and would play Inter Miami or New England in a three-game series. In any other scenario Orlando City will be in the play-in game, and could host or play on the road against Cincinnati or Columbus in a single-elimination game.

We will know the Eastern Conference playoff bracket and schedule in the early evening on Saturday and where Orlando City will be when it starts its playoff journey for the seventh consecutive season. That streak is the longest active streak in MLS, as the Lions have qualified for the playoffs in every season since 2020, or, as our The Mane Land PawedCast hosts Michael Citro and Dave Rohe noted on this week’s episode, in every season when Óscar Pareja began the season as the head coach.

*Three Western Conference playoff spots are still up for grabs, so the teams with asterisks could all add one to their tally or drop to/remain at zero depending on the results on Decision Day

The seven-year streak for the Lions not only leads MLS, but is one of the best across all of the major men’s sports in the U.S. Only eight of the 153 other teams in the five leagues listed below have a playoff streak at least as long as Orlando City’s, though while the Lions lead MLS, they do not hold the belt in the state of Florida, as the Tampa Bay Lightning are one season away from making the playoffs in 10 consecutive seasons.

The last time the Lions did not make the playoffs was back in 2019, the year that both Nani and Robin Jansson arrived in Orlando. That team finished 11th in the Eastern Conference, though it had a goal differential of -8, which was only half as bad as the 2026 team’s current goal differential of -16. Back then, we thought allowing 1.53 goals per game seemed like a lot. If the 2026 team could have managed to allow only that same amount per game, the current goal differential would be +11, which would be in the top quarter of the league. Ah, wishful thinking.

Instead, as Orlando City fans are well aware, this year’s team has allowed 78 goals in 33 regular-season games (2.37 per game) and will almost certainly go into the playoffs having allowed the most goals of any playoff team in league history. This chart below includes every team since the Lions joined MLS, and there is a clear and unsurprising trend as it relates to allowing goals and earning points:

For the math nerds (my hand is firmly raised), the correlation is -0.69. Math majors would say that means goals allowed per match explains roughly half (r² ≈ 0.48) of the variation in points per match. Normal people would say teams that concede more goals tend to earn fewer points. Especially when they concede goals LATE IN THE GAME, WHEN THEY ARE WINNING, TURNING WINS INTO DRAWS!

I am sorry for the all caps, but that was cathartic. I do not feel even slightly better about the recently dropped points to Toronto, New York City FC, and Chicago, but at least I yelled angrily at my computer screen about it.

The 2026 Lions are a clear outlier on the chart above, as despite a brutal start to the season (seven losses in the first 10 games) and a profligate defense (third-worst goals-against average in league history and second-worst since they joined the league), they still have out-performed 41% of teams since 2015 in points earned per match. That is mostly because this year’s offense is in the 89th percentile in goals scored per match (1.88) since 2015 and with one goal scored will tie last year’s Lions for the most goals scored in club history, and with two or more scored will set a new club record.

If they can score six (stay with me, both Cincinnati and LAFC scored six on the Lions this season, so this is not completely unreasonable) on Saturday, they will get to an even 2.00 goals scored per game, something that has happened only 30 times in league history.

Whether the Lions win, lose, draw, get shut out, or score six (please, let them score six, if only to see Antoine Griezmann break out some kind of improvised six-shooter goal celebration), the playoff streak will extend through this season and be active when the 2027 sprint season starts in February. Finishing in the play-in game two years in a row would be disappointing, not to mention stressful, but championship runs can only happen after a team earns an invitation to the dance.

Where, hopefully for the Lions, the playoff beat will go on, everlasting.

Vamos Orlando!