A free agent with a passport full of stamps
San Diego FC did not spend a cent on a transfer fee. They announced the signing of Cedric Bakambu on Thursday, and the forward arrives on a deal running through the end of the 2026 season, with club options attached for 2027 and 2027-28.
Bakambu is 35. That number will draw eyes before anything else does. It should not be the only one. The Congolese striker has scored 191 goals in 492 professional appearances since 2010, a return built across France, Turkey, China, Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Spain. Few forwards currently in Major League Soccer can point to a career spread that wide.
His most recent stop was Real Betis. Two seasons in Seville brought 15 goals and seven assists in 74 appearances, a modest strike rate that reflects a role closer to rotation than to first choice.
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What San Diego think they are buying
Sporting director Tyler Heaps framed the move around what Bakambu has already proved rather than what he might still become.
“Cedric brings an incredible level of experience and proven quality to San Diego FC,” Heaps said. “He has built an outstanding career competing at the highest levels in Europe and internationally, and his ability to consistently find the back of the net has been a defining part of his game.”
The timing matters too. Bakambu played for DR Congo at the World Cup this summer, so he arrives having faced elite defences within the last three months rather than after a long layoff. San Diego, still an expansion side finding its shape, get a finisher who does not need the league explained to him.
A busy Thursday across the league
The signing landed on one of the heavier transaction days of the MLS calendar. Houston took Lyle Foster on loan from Burnley, Chicago borrowed Noah Allen from Inter Miami, and New England brought in Joshua Wynder from Benfica on a year-long loan. Bakambu carried the longest goal record of the lot.
Whether the legs still match the instinct is the question San Diego have chosen to answer in public.
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