Man Utd star Casemiro to Inter Miami? Here’s the only way it can happen

Manchester United midfielder Casemiro is being linked with a summer move to Inter Miami, but is a transfer even possible?

The 33-year-old will be out of contract in the summer because the Red Devils have opted against exercising the one-year option in his contract. Man Utd were only prepared to keep Casemiro around on reduced terms.

However, an agreement evidently couldn’t be reached, resulting in the Brazil international announcing his impending departure during the January transfer window.

Casemiro was already widely expected to leave Man Utd last summer after really showing his age in the 2024/25 campaign. He struggled to cope with the pace of the Premier League, and many assumed that INEOS would sell him to the highest bidder.

The veteran, who will turn 34 next week, had other ideas. He was determined to stay and fight for his place – and he succeeded. Casemiro has won back his starting spot and become quite important to the Old Trafford club again.

Can Miami sign Casemiro?

Because of this, he has no shortage of suitors. According to The Sun, Casemiro is fielding interest from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Portugal and the US. Specifically, his former clubs Sao Paulo and Porto are trying to re-sign him.

Additionally, the report claims that Inter Miami hold an interest in the Brazilian. In fact, Casemiro was in Miami just last week “to scout the area as he weighs up his options after the World Cup in the summer.”

However, a move to Major League Soccer would not be straightforward. That is because Inter Miami already have three Designated Players (DPs) who will not be leaving anytime soon. MLS clubs are allowed to have a maximum of six players who sit outside of the salary cap.

These six roster spots are split between DPs and U22 Initiative players. If clubs choose to only use two DP slots, they are allowed to have four U22 Initiative stars. However, they can only have a maximum of three DPs, so they can’t have four DPs and only two U22 Initiate players.

This would be problematic for Miami concerning Casemiro because a player of his status would almost certainly be a DP. The current non-DP salary threshold in MLS is slightly above $740,000 per year.

This is just over $100,000 more than what Casemiro is thought to earn weekly at Man Utd. Signing a non-DP deal would therefore require a monumental pay cut on the part of the midfielder.

Technically, MLS clubs do have the ability to buy down a DP contract if the player’s salary sits only slightly above the threshold. However, given that Miami’s current DPs are Lionel Messi, fellow World Cup winner Rodrigo de Paul and new star striker German Berterame, they likely can’t use this mechanism to make room for Casemiro.

Messi makes $20.45m per year, while De Paul is believed to now be on $12m after only receiving $1.5m during his initial six-month loan. The only other way to get Casemiro would be to sell one of their DPs.

Obviously, the Herons are not going to sell Messi, and they only just signed De Paul permanently for $17m and Berterame for $15m. They will not offload any of these players for an ageing midfielder they do not need.

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