Olivier Giroud will join LAFC on a free transfer from AC Milan in the summer, just before the Euro 2024 tournament.
LAFC appears to have signed AC Milan star and French international Olivier Giroud on a free transfer, according to reports of an agreement between the player and the club.
According to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, Giroud signed a deal to join the Black and Gold this summer on Tuesday, just a month after verbally agreeing to join the MLS club in March. His new contract runs until December 2025. Giroud will join close friend and long-time France teammate Hugo Lloris in Los Angeles next season.
‘Giroud can be regarded a new LAFC player,’ Romano wrote on X only a day after AC Milan lost 2-1 to rivals Internazionale on Monday, thereby ending this year’s Serie A title chase. Earlier this spring, Giroud was connected with moves to the United States, Saudi Arabia, and even staying in Europe, but it looks that he has made up his mind. He’ll make $3.2 million each year as a Los Angeles FC player, according to ESPN.
Olivier Giroud is expected to earn up to $3.2 million each year until December 2025, according to sources. The former Arsenal and Chelsea striker has 13 goals and eight assists in 30 Serie A games for Milan this season and is a member of Didier Deschamps’ France team. Giroud holds the record for most goals scored for the French national team (57 in 131 appearances). He will go to Los Angeles after competing in Euro 2024 in Germany, where France is considered the big favorite to win the title. LAFC hired 39-year-old striker Kei Kamara this week to help with its scoring difficulties this season, after parting ways with Carlos Vela in 2023.
The 38-year-old, who has 276 goals in nearly 700 professional games, will join former France teammate and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in Los Angeles. Both appeared at the 2022 World Cup. After nine games of the 2024 season, the Black and Gold are in seventh position in the Western Conference with a 3-3-3 record. Giroud will add to an offense that already has MLS Golden Boot winner Denis Bouanga. Giroud will be in his sixth league in his career, having previously played in the National (third level), Ligue 2 and Ligue 1 in France with Grenoble, Istres, Tours, and Montpellier, where he won the French championship in 2012.
He later came to England to play in the Premier League, first for Arsenal, where he won three FA Cups, and then for Chelsea, where he won the Champions League, Europa League, and FA Cup. He joined AC Milan in 2021 and won the Serie A title in his debut season. Giroud, who has 276 goals in nearly 700 club appearances, was also a member of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 2018, appearing in all seven games. He also represented France in two further World Cups and three European Championships.