Well, that’s it. Atlanta United’s 2025 season is officially over.
Now, the focus is on 2026 and deciding which players on the current roster can be building blocks toward a more competitive squad next season. Much like this past summer window, Chief Soccer Officer Chris Henderson has said that the upcoming offseason will be very busy. A part of that will include decisions on 13 players whose contracts expire at the end of the year. Who will be retained, and who will be let go to make room for new acquisitions?
Before diving into the roster moves, here’s a depth chart to help you visualize the contract situations.
Without further ado, here’s how I think the end-of-season roster moves will go.
Brad Guzan — Retired
After a legendary career, Brad Guzan, Atlanta United’s longtime starting goalkeeper and captain, has decided to hang up his gloves. At the very least, we know he will not be back next season, so this is an easy one.
Ronald Hernandez ($290,750) — Stay
With Brooks Lennon seemingly falling out of favor with Ronny Deila, Ronald Hernandez has gotten a larger share of minutes.
He has developed a strong connection with Miguel Almiron, which has led to the pair working very well on the right side. The overloads that they create in the attack are (at least in theory) exactly what Ronny Deila is trying to get this team to do in build-up.
Having said that, I don’t expect Hernandez to be the starting right back in 2026. I think the club signs someone else in the offseason, leaving the Venezuelan international as a backup.
Brooks Lennon ($740,000) — Leave
It’s become abundantly clear over the course of the 2025 season that it’s time for Brooks Lennon to move on from Atlanta United. His main asset has been his crosses, which made him the club’s all-time assists leader (38), but they’ve been significantly less effective lately. Part of this may have to do with no one on the team reliably taking advantage of crosses into the box to the level that Giorgos Giakoumakis used to, but another much larger part of it may be his 25.5% crossing accuracy this season.
Furthermore, Ronny Deila’s recent preference for Ronald Hernandez sort of seals Lennon’s fate to be at best a substitute on this team, and let’s be real, you’re not going to pay a guy $740,000 to be a sub in a salary-capped league.
Leo Afonso — Leave
This trade didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me when the club made it, except as an “Oops, we’ve kinda run out of winger depth” panic signing. Afonso was never going to get significant minutes in Atlanta, and he definitely wasn’t expected to come in and truly improve this attack.
His salary right now isn’t public yet, but I’m sure it isn’t too much. That isn’t my concern here. It’s more so that this club can do so much better. If the club wants to return to the elite of MLS, it has to be ruthless and ambitious with its roster decisions. Speaking of which…
Jamal Thiare ($730,000) — Leave
Since his first full season in 2024, Thiare was exactly what he was brought in to be: a serviceable backup striker.
He’s had his memorable moments, such as his sneaky game-winning goal against Toronto FC or his brace to help the team eliminate Inter Miami in the playoffs last year, so he’ll definitely have a special place in the club’s lore.
However, I think now is the time to cut him loose. For starters, he will be turning 33 early next season. He is way out of his prime years and will not be getting any better. Secondly, he is on a hefty TAM contract and occupies an international slot. I don’t think you can justify tying up so many assets into a backup striker. This club should either dive into free agency or go find a talented U22 player (which would be even more salary cap friendly) to find a backup striker.
Josh Cohen ($328,492) — Stay
With Guzan retiring, I’m 99% certain Jayden Hibbert will be the starting goalkeeper in 2026 (more on him later), but he’ll still need two backups. This is why I think Cohen’s option gets picked up for 2026. He’s on a relatively low salary and has performed reasonably well the few times we’ve seen him.
However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the club opts to drop Cohen and dive into the free agent market for additional flexibility.
Will Reilly ($80,622) — Stay
While not the most consistent performer, I think the club should hang onto Will Reilly. He has shown the ability to be a very progressive player who needs fine-tuning in some areas. At age 22, he still has a couple of years before entering his prime, so we can expect growth from him.
Also, Reilly is a homegrown player, which is awesome for a couple of reasons. First of all, he’s one of our own! A kid from Georgia who graduated from the Atlanta United Academy. Second, homegrowns provide much more flexibility to the salary cap. Reilly being a solid backup midfielder for just $80,622 is an absolute steal!
Cayman Togashi ($104,000) — Leave
This one’s tough because I really wanted to see more of Togashi this season. The couple of good looks we got at him were quite positive, and I’m a huge fan of the way he celebrated his goal against Atlas in Leagues Cup by roaring up at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium roof.
Normally, I would take a player on the senior minimum of $104,000, but I haven’t seen enough of Togashi at the first team level to justify that. He just never really seemed to convince Ronny Deila as a competitor to Emmanuel Latte Lath and Thiare, even when both of them had dry spells.
Another thing to consider is that younger players on the second team, like Rodrigo Neri and Patrick Weah, are pushing to break into the first team. The club probably won’t want to put a 32-year-old Togashi in the way of their development.
Jay Fortune ($109,000) — Stay
Jay had a very good 2024 and was off to a good start in 2025 until his season-ending injury. The club is certainly going to pick up his option.
Jayden Hibbert ($80,622) — Stay
After managing two clean sheets in eight games and putting up some very impressive performances, I’m very confident that Hibbert will be Atlanta United’s No. 1 in 2026.
At 21 years of age, Hibbert already shows control of his box, composure under pressure, and has made some very good saves. He still has potential to improve, something that has been highly praised by Canadian Men’s National Team head coach Jesse Marsch.
Having a starting goalkeeper on a supplemental minimum is pretty much the dream. Hibbert has three option years on his contract, so I expect the 2026 one to be triggered.
Matt Edwards ($80,622) — Stay
It’s a shame Matt Edwards has been out injured since July, because I thought he did well at times. I thought he connected particularly well with Luke Brennan when he began playing more on the left wing.
If you go back and take a look at the depth chart, you’ll notice that the fullback positions — especially right back — will be one of the thinnest areas on the roster. Keeping Edwards gives you a solid backup who can play on either side and is on a supplemental minimum salary.
Nyk Sessock — Leave
Although he had a very good game against Atlas in Leagues Cup, Nyk Sessock hasn’t really had much involvement beyond that one match. He was signed in August after the club found itself short on fullbacks.
While he is probably on a supplemental minimum salary, I don’t expect him to have his option picked up. At 25 years old, he doesn’t have a lot of room for improvement, and the club can probably find a more proven player to replace him.
Edwin Mosquera ($462,000) — Stay… kinda
If you were wondering why Atlanta United’s front office seems averse to signing U22 players, Edwin Mosquera is probably a big reason why.
The Colombian’s arrival in 2022 didn’t make much sense at the time. He is a winger who was signed when he hadn’t scored a goal in his professional career. That’s pretty much a recipe for disaster.
Mosquera is on loan to Millonarios in Colombia, a move that he clearly wanted for a long time, until next June. As such, the club has to pick up his 2026 option to cover the duration of the loan. After that, it is expected that Millonarios will exercise the purchase option on the loan.
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Sean Johnson had his option declined by Toronto, so he could be a decent option at GK if Atlanta wants another veteran option at GK.
That’s interesting. Grew up in Atlanta. And was an Atlanta United player for all of like 30 seconds in 2017. Might not be a bad idea if he was willing to push Hibbert or be a back up in case of emergencies. I wonder what Toronto is thinking?
Probably a money/salary cap thing, it could also be Johnson wanting more money.
Well, I absolutely hate the money ball side of this sport in this country (/league), but I assume Guzan finally retiring would open up some salary room for a move that might make sense. For the right price I’d still be open to it.
good analysis for the most part. The failure of this season was most profound when you look back at the reliance on the Academy homegrown. With the exception of Fortune none of them are worth keeping. Any homegrown who we can release should be released in favor of more experience and talent. It was a death sentence for the coach if we are being honest.
I’ll never understand how people get these takes. The reason why the homegrowns weren’t as great is because they’ve never played at this level before. Quite literally they’re noobs. It’s like freshman or middle schoolers on a high school team – of course they’re not as good as seniors. You also can’t replace them with more experience and talent, because those roster slots literally can’t be used for anything else other than minimum salary players like Togashi. Like it’s written in to the roster slots they take, and they make like a tenth of the money players like Lennon and Saba and Muyumba make.
The real failure is that the more experienced players were performing at a similar level to the homegrowns or that injuries/roster construction made it so you had no options at some positions other than homegrowns. That’s either on the scouting/FO for signing players who had no business taking senior roster slots, players for slacking, or the coach for hampering the talents of his players. Probably a bit of all three.
The one thing this is absolutely not on is the homegrown players.
Just to reinforce my point:
Efrain Morales made $112k, 21yrs old, 20 appearances at the MLS level.
Abram made $872k, 29yrs old, 333 appearances at top leagues around the world.
Edwards made $81k, 22yrs old, 25 appearances at MLS level.
Lennon made $740k, 28yrs old, 287 appearances at the MLS level.
Reilly made $81k, 22yrs old, 14 appearances at MLS level.
Muyumba made $592k, 28yrs old, 152 appearances at MLS/Ligue 2 or better.
Brennan made $104k, 20yrs old, 28 appearances at MLS level.
Saba made $999k, 30yrs old, 374 appearances at clubs throughout the world.
Those slots that the 4 homegrowns took cannot be replaced by players who make Abram numbers, they have to be replaced by other homegrowns, or worse, experienced players who are proven to be bad enough to accept $80-100k levels of pay.
So tell me, if it’s a toss-up between these pairs which player is better, but it’s just generally not great no matter what, whose fault is that?
Seriously getting mad at the lifeboats because they’re not as nice or as big as the Titanic.
My hot takes, some I’ve said before some I haven’t:
Miranchuk needs to be a second striker, or maybe an inside forward. Not the 10 or the 8. We can’t rely on him on defense, so that means dropping back to a mid or low block, and let him jog back while offsides like Josef of old. That means a change from the normal attacking philosophy, so if we can’t do that he needs to go.
Muyumba should actually be a backup 10. His positives of before were his free runs and his forward passing, which got beaten out of him in an attempt to make him a more reliable defensive 8. If we re-enable his creativity, I think he’d be great again, but by necessity that means taking him out of central midfield unless we get a real defensive destroyer next to him and other athletic defensive dreadnoughts to cover his being out of position on the transition.
Brooks Lennon is fine if he gets a coach that inspires him to do more than cross. We’ve seen him at his best when the runs in behind, makes cutback passes, or drifts inside.
Saba is fine if he’s used in transition, and runs in behind. He’s not if he’s expected to make precise passes in slow possession.
Kind of the growing trend in all of these hot takes is we’ve got a lot of creative attackers being forced into defense first mindset, whether that’s through position or tactics. I think even when we have the ball and they’re supposed to be getting us goals, I think they’ve been instructed to play in a way that doesn’t allow them to use their strengths, or they’ve been beat down so much that they don’t trust the players around them to reward those plays if they tried. Not sure whether that means we need to replace them with more defensive players or they need to be let loose and find the defenders who can cover for them, but I don’t think the tactics have really allowed them to do what they’re good at.
Good analysis. Agree about Lennon and Saba still being useful to the team under the right coach. We can’t have the knee-jerk reaction to cut many of the more experienced players and expect a lot of the up-and-coming youngsters to fill their roles adequately. The younger guys will have their roles, sure, and some may become and stay starters eventually, but not all at once. I also agree that current players’ strengths haven’t been employed to best effect.
Lennon would need to take a serious pay cut, IMO. For $700k you can probably find another RB that can play offense AND defense.
I agree with most of what was posted, though I do feel like Lennon is still an MLS starting caliber RB over Hernandez. I’d probably keep them both, unless Lennon’s cost can’t be justified, then I agree with the assessment.
I’d keep Afonso around, assuming his salary is on the lower side. He seemed to do a good job as a backup winger and was good on the ball. Much better than Mosquera IMO.
I’d also say goodbye to Edwards, or at least move him back to the 2s. He doesn’t seem first team ready.
Muyumba needs to go…figure it out ATL. He’s a liability.
Chong Qui, no, still not first team ready IMO.
Hopefully we get Cobb back, and can solidify that back line and focus elsewhere, though Gregersen is starting to become a liability too.
And lastly, we need to figure out a use for Miranchuk…he’s not a 10. I’ve said it too many times, he’s not a 10. At least not in this league. When utilized as an 8, he was pretty solid…even the non-ATL commentators made numerous comments about it when Deila played him there. He’s more comfortable on the ball in that 8 slot than the 10. We need a playmaker at the 10.
Despite being a huge Lennon detractor this year, I’d be fine keeping him if we got the 2023 version of him. I don’t think he’s been as effective in the past as some people say he has been, but I think he’d be good enough if he does the right things, like the cutting inside stuff, the runs behind, the driving to the goal line and cutback passes. Which I actually am starting to strongly suspect is very dependent on the coach, I think possibly Deila (and a 2024 Pineda who was overly worried about defense and eventually his job) put limits on him that caused him to not be effective anymore.
I also didn’t think Miranchuk was effective at the 8 either. I think he actually works best as the SS in 2 forward setup. He needs to be high up the pitch, drifting around/in the box, making the assist or the shot. Thinking back to when he was especially effective end of 2024, and even in short moments in 2025, this is where you saw him making an impact. He can’t be the metronome or orchestrator though which everything flows like we need the 8 or the 10 to be; he’s the invisible link, the Reumdeuter, who just finds the space up top to make the impossible possible.
I don’t like him as an 8 in general because to be honest, i’m not sure who he fits into this type of league unless he is a winger. SS, maybe, but we need dangerous strikers. People who strike fear and make defenders question how they’ll play. It’s clear no one in this league was ever afraid of our team.
Agree about Edwards. He had shown well at times, but not steadily, too many mistakes. I lke Cobb a lot, but ‘undersized’ central Ds can be undervalued. Cobb’s a CB in the Parkhurst style, a good reader of the game, but more vocal that Parky tended to be. I wish Cobb would be brought back, but he might prefer more playing time in Colorado. As for Miranchuk, I like him for his passing vision, his occasional left-footed daggers shot at–and sometimes into–goal, and his general, good-natured hard work. He doesn’t have the grit and drive of Slisz, but creative types often don’t. I’m not impressed by Chong Qui, but hopefully he’ll get better. Muyumba–I just don’t trust him to help the team retain possession.
I assume you’ll have another article on trades and buyout?
I agree with all these moves. The only one I might second guess is cutting Thiare loose. That’s admittedly a big salary for a backup striker, but it’s a really nice luxury to have. If they cut him loose, they need to land another backup that will similarly impact games as a rotational piece and high-frequency sub.
Not listed: Muyumba – leave. Find a buyer or just pay him to go away. He’s too expensive to be an unreliable sub. He always brings high energy and a “try something” approach, but his sloppy/lazy passes too often lead to costly turnovers. He’s just too sloppy on a too frequent basis.
I’ve posted it before, but of the DPs, I think Miranchuk should be moved out. He’s not a bad player, but he seems to be a poor fit for the tactical approached we tried (and probably will utilize). His lack of pace is a problem. He can’t drive the ball through the midfield on counters and he’s about useless in a high press. I do think he is very skilled with the ball at his feet and has good vision, but we need a guy in the middle that can do more to impact games. Maybe a new coach can set up the attack in a way that can utilize his skills and mitigate his lack of pace? I’m not confident in that.
Not to beat a dead and lame horse, but another backup striker who matches Thiare’s profile (age, impact, and salary) is Josef.
As much as I’d like to have Josef back (see name) he makes 1.3m this year and would likely need 1m at least even next year. And he won’t want to be a backup after showing he can still clearly be a starter in MLS.
Thiare costs ~100k TAM which is so tiny compared to the ~400k Josef would need.
I don’t think it’s out of the question. Probably won’t happen, but it’s not out of the question and the cost isn’t horrible. He is still dangerous to backlines all across the league and he’s got a great connection with Miggy.
I’m not opposed to it, but he’d probably need to be realistic about his role here and take a pay cut. Josef was more of a starter than backup this year, with 21 starts in 30 appearances for SJ. It was actually his best MLS season since he tore his ACL with the most appearances, starts, minutes, and goals since then. He also carried a $1.45 million cap hit this season, about double Thiare’s hit. Josef is tied for 18th in goals scored and is 8th in MLS in G/90. I’d guess he’d still get a pretty strong contract on the open market after this production, even
Of course, with a certain Argentine manager that lured him here before, plus his pal Miguelito, maybe AUFC looks more appealing to Josef as a rotation player on a lesser contract?
I’m guessing some of this article was written before Delia was fired, otherwise, why would the way Delia utilized a given player be a big factor in whether they stay or go?
The Hernandez, Lennon, and Togashi write-ups all reference how Delia used them. Doesn’t seem relevant now.
That said, Togashi is probably the only one I disagree with (I think he should stay), except for maybe Cohen, and only because he seems fairly expensive for a backup keeper. But then, God forbid, if Hibbert got hurt you’d want someone with at least some experience playing at MLS-ish level.
Alec Kann is a free agent at end of season…
I mostly agree with this although I have a soft spot for Mosquera and not a huge fan of Fortune. Hibbert should get a raise. Now all aboard the #TataHypeTrain
I think you’re the first person i’ve heard of is a fan of Mosquera. He’s not a bad player, but he’s a high cost for a sub-par performer. He needs to be moved on from.
I’m not the biggest fan of Fortune, but he’s got the skill to manage the midfield. He needs more minutes and more mentoring but he’ll get there.
I think Mosquera is bad. He’s got tantalizing pace and works hard, but almost zero touch or awareness. He’s good for a nice goal every blue moon. If he had better technical skills, he’d be great.
Mosquera > Fortune?!?! Is this the guy deciding who we sell to Montreal?
(All in good fun)