Júnior Alonso appears set to join Atlanta United on a free transfer after two years at Atlético Mineiro, his third stint with the club.
The Paraguay international, who is set to be part of his country’s squad for the 2026 World Cup, announced that he had played his final match for Atlético on Wednesday night. Multiple outlets are reporting that the 33-year-old’s next stop is Atlanta. Though his contract runs until December, Atlético is reportedly keen to let him go in the summer to join the Five Stripes.
“I’m very grateful to Atlético for everything they’ve given me as a club. The culture, the support. I’m grateful to the board, to the fans, who have always respected me,” Alonso told reporters after Wednesday’s match.
Atlanta has been linked to Alonso for the past several months. In November, Paraguayan journalist Jorge Chipi Vera reported that a deal was “very close.” Then, in March, Bruno Font reported on an “agreement and promise” between Alonso and Atlanta for him to join “midway through the year.”
In Atlanta, Alonso will reunite with national teammate Miguel Almirón. Both players went through the Cerro Porteño academy before playing together on the senior team from 2013 to 2015.
With Juan Berrocal’s loan apparently set to expire, Atlanta is in search of centerback depth. The question, of course, is how much money Alonso will command. Stian Gregersen and Enea Mihaj are due a combined $2.185 million in guaranteed compensation in 2026. Berrocal’s number was just over $1.424 million. With Alonso at 33 years old, the hope is that he won’t command nearly as much, leaving Atlanta plenty of money on top of what it’s freeing up after Matías Galarza’s loan expiration for it to make subsequent moves.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
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Every week, Scarves and Spikes brings you original interviews, on-site coverage, live shows/podcasts, and the analysis you won’t find at the bigger national outlets. With 2026 being a World Cup year, Atlanta United facing yet another important transfer window, the U.S. Soccer National Training Center setting up shop in the Atlanta area, and NWSL Atlanta kicking off in 2028, your support helps us do even more.
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Our CB pool needs help, but I’m not sure this is the avenue to take. If they sign him, I’ll get on board until it doesn’t work, of course, but I think he’s going to be kind of expensive.
Positives are he’s got some good experience in different leagues that should translate to MLS (Argentina, Brazil, Russia). He’s also left footed, which I don’t think is absolutely necessary in a CB pairing, but nice to have. It looks like he’s good at playing accurate long balls.
Negatives are his age and likely cost. It looks like he’s making around $1.5-1.6 million a year right now. Is he willing to take a pay cut? If we are looking to add another high-TAM player, I’d much rather spend that on a CDM than another expensive CB. Berrocal goes out, but Mihaj and Gregerson still make around $2.5 million combined (Mihaj is our highest cap hit on the team).
well he would be a free transfer, so the salary could be a whole lot less
Well, he can’t be terrible if he’s made his country’s national team, which will be in the WC this year.
I like your point, but I can’t help but also point to Luis Abram.
Also, Miggy, on the same NT as Alonso and woefully underperforming here.
Is Miggy terrible at soccer, or just falling well short of what was probably unrealistic expectations?
Why he is falling short is a different conversation, and I think a big chunk of it is he’s just not the guy he was in 2018 when he was faster with the ball than almost everyone was without it.
I don’t think he’s terrible (he’s on a team that made the WC), but he’s not a DP-level guy anymore.
Peru didn’t qualify for the World Cup, but Paraguay did. That was intended to be my qualifier over and above “made the national team”.
Anyways, I’m trying to maintain a tiny sliver of optimism, but this team makes that really difficult.
The guy’s stats aren’t the best, but they’re better than Berrocal’s, so I’ll take it, especially if we can get him cheaper.
33???
Hope he’s not a snail like most of our current defenders
Hopefully it works out! At the very least, Tata’s recent guys haven’t been any worse than the overpriced dreck Lagerway & Henderson have brought into the team.
If he helps solve our leaky defense, pay him whatever is needed. I’m sick of watching our defensive breakdowns and miscues every week.
as long as he isn’t costing too much money, I am fine with this. Would be nice if we could get a younger CB as a 4th/5th CB, but that is probably asking for too much at this point.
On that note, wonder if Benfica would give us a good deal for Wynder.
$3M in your CB corp that is still leaking goals isn’t a good look. I’m of the mindset that we should be building up some homegrowns/adidas/academy/2s players into CB roles like we had with Morales/Cobb and use the money to bring in some attacking threats.
I would assume, if we had some homegrown CBs ready, they would have already been used at some capacity. And like the article said, we will be down to 2 CBs once Berrocal’s loan expires in a couple days. I would rather bring at least 2 more CBs so we have some depth.
miles, campbell, tubbs, cobb, morales, bauer…i’m probably forgetting one or two. we have killed it with young, talented cb’s with a high upside. with the exception of several years with miles, we just get rid of them. i really can’t understand this pressing need to get rid of all our talented young defenders.
Not really including Miles or Bauer since they were both drafted. Miles also wanted to leave Atlanta to go to Europe, so I don’t really blame him for leaving. But we definitely should have kept at least one of the other guys long term.
I mean, we are, but we got a couple years before the next batch are ready. We kinda sold off all of our current stock in Cobb/Morales/Tubbs.
That’s the downside, I understand. Just wish we could have set ourselves up better than this.
I understood selling Tubbs since he hadn’t officially played with the first team, but it was definitely mindboggling when they sold both Morales and Cobb when we didn’t have that many CBs to begin with
Dont forget Campbell, who has been the most successful of the bunch.
Imagine if we still had Campbell and Miles.