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Atlanta United are on a mission to recapture their former glory, and Switzerland's World Cup standout Breel Embolo has taken the wheel.
After the Five Stripes splashed out a staggering $18 million transfer fee to French Ligue 1 club Stade Rennais for the prolific forward, Embolo signed a four-year contract, tying him to the club through the 2029–30 MLS season.
Now, he's prepared to shoulder the expectations that come with being such a high-profile signing in a passionate MLS market that has drawn an average of more than 52,000 supporters per match in recent years, back when the club was among the league's elite.
Atlanta United, which joined the league in 2017, was once a dominant force in MLS. They claimed the 2018 MLS Cup and reached the 2019 Eastern Conference final, a campaign that also saw them lift the U.S. Open Cup. Since that period, however, the club has endured difficult times, managing just three playoff appearances, none of which saw them advance beyond the second round.
Atlanta Not Afraid of Spending
The inability to compete for silverware hasn't deterred Atlanta from opening their checkbook, however. The Georgia club accounts for five of the top-eight largest incoming transfer fees in MLS history. Yet only Ezequiel Barco's $13 million move in 2018 and Thiago Almada's 2022 fee of $15.5 million have yielded any meaningful success.
Embolo, sitting second on that list behind the $22 million signing of striker Emmanuel Latte Lath, aims to outperform his costly predecessors. Latte Lath, currently on loan at Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin, managed just nine goals and three assists across 44 appearances, despite his hefty transfer fee and a $3.74 million annual salary.
The 29-year-old Swiss attacker is ready to embrace the challenge and the pressure that comes with being such a significant financial commitment. He is set to make his Five Stripes debut against Charlotte FC on Saturday, as the team sits four points adrift of the ninth and final MLS Cup playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.
"The first thing, of course, is that we can say the team is not in the best position. But I think that's my job to help the team to get there, where it belongs," Embolo told reporters at his introductory press conference. "There's a lot of ambition here. The board and everyone around the club showed me a lot of love, so it was easy for me to come here.
"I want to be making the people around me better. That is something that I love: that everyone has fun. If we get it so that we have a flow and everybody feels that he can score and help the team, then we achieve the most difficult thing."
Breel Embolo—"A Big Winning Guy"
Keen to rediscover the sharp form he displayed with a goal and two assists during Switzerland's exhilarating run to the 2026 FIFA World Cup quarterfinals this summer, Embolo appears to have fully embraced the distinct demands that come with the rigors of an MLS regular season.
Yet for Embolo, it goes beyond simply rediscovering personal form. It's about building an enduring legacy through winning...and winning consistently.
"The project is to help the team to get where it belongs, and that was, for me, my motivation to come here more than a fear," Embolo said. "To create a flow where everybody is happy to play, everybody is happy to score and to assist, and we want to get this winning mentality there because that's the thing. I'm maybe not a striker who just wants to score 15 or 30 goals, but I'm a big winning guy."
His journey, and his quest to restore the Five Stripes to the pinnacle of MLS, kicks off on Saturday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where Atlanta supporters will judge whether their latest expensive acquisition is truly up to the challenge.