The LA Galaxy are finalizing a loan deal to bring Hirving Lozano from San Diego FC, a move that would make the Mexican forward a designated player in LA and end a year of uncertainty around one of MLS’s priciest names.
The timing matters because Lozano, 2026’s fourth-highest-paid player in MLS at a guaranteed $9.33 million, has not featured for San Diego this season and has been training alone all year. San Diego gave him permission to negotiate with the Galaxy, and the club would still be responsible for part of his salary if the loan is completed.
That is a sharp turn for a player who was presented as the face of San Diego FC’s expansion season only a year earlier. By January, sporting director Tyler Heaps was already saying Lozano was not part of the team’s plans, and he repeated later that nothing had changed from the club’s side, leaving the forward in limbo while the club moved on around him.
The split did not begin quietly. Lozano was left out of San Diego FC’s squad for its season finale against Portland last October, and a report said the omission followed a locker-room altercation after a halftime substitution angered him. He also put up production when he did play, with nine goals and 10 assists in 27 regular-season matches last season, plus two goals and an assist in four playoff games off the bench.
San Diego later added Elias Achouri on a designated player deal earlier this summer, another sign the roster had shifted away from Lozano. Heaps also said that a lot depended on Lozano and whether he wanted to continue to play football, a line that now reads less like a warning than a route to the exit.
The Galaxy have a reason to move fast. Their attack has changed after selling Gabriel Pec and adding Kyōgo Furuhashi, and a loan for Lozano would give them another established scorer while San Diego keeps paying part of a contract it no longer seems eager to carry. Mexico first reported the talks, and the last unresolved piece is the exact loan term and duration before the move becomes official.
