Palmeiras has received an offer of around $9.5 million from Austin FC for Facundo Torres and, even without a deal in place, the move is already shifting the club’s internal landscape. The bid, first reported by The Athletic and later confirmed, is for 100 percent of the Uruguayan forward’s economic rights. The amount doesn’t solve everything, isn’t financially exciting and doesn’t cover last year’s investment, but it hits a sensitive point in the club’s planning. Palmeiras needs to create roster space and ease its wage bill to stay active in the market. Right now, Facundo sits squarely in the middle of that equation.
Signed for $12 million from Orlando City, Facundo logged heavy minutes in 2025. He played 61 matches, started 43 of them and posted 10 goals with five assists. It’s a respectable output, but he never became the kind of name that decides games week after week.
A lot of games, little lasting impact
Facundo was almost always on the field, yet he rarely left it as the main talking point. He didn’t hurt the team, didn’t drag it down, but he also didn’t carry the group when things got tight. At the end of last season, head coach Abel Ferreira even said he wouldn’t want to see the player sold. That was a fair technical assessment at the time. But calendars turn, budgets tighten and the market starts offering alternatives.
At the start of this season, the Uruguayan hasn’t played yet. Palmeiras reported that he picked up a left thigh injury during preseason. It’s not serious, but it matters in the planning. An expensive player, sidelined and without clear star status, tends to be viewed with more detachment when the club needs to reshuffle its roster.
MLS looks to bring back a former league star
Austin’s offer isn’t being treated as a magic fix, but as a real option. Facundo remains a regular presence in Uruguay’s national team call-ups, which keeps his profile alive on the market, yet Palmeiras has never been technically dependent on him. The math is straightforward. Holding on means keeping a useful but costly player. Selling now means accepting that the on-field return didn’t fully match the investment.
Palmeiras isn’t rushing publicly, but it’s not looking away either. The MLS proposal landed because it aligns with an internal need. Talks are ongoing. Nothing is done. Still, the very fact that the club is willing to listen shows that Facundo’s place isn’t untouchable. At Palmeiras, when planning starts to outweigh rhetoric, decisions usually come quietly. And in this case, that decision could send him back to a league he knows well.