The New York Red Bulls has completed the signing of Cameroon forward Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
The 35-year-old joins as a free agent, having been without a club since the expiration of his Bayern Munich contract in the summer of 2024.
Choupo-Moting has signed as a Designated Player on a two-year deal through to 2026 with the option of a further year.
“Maxim is a strong forward that will bring a lot of experience and leadership to our club,” said Red Bulls head coach Sandro Schwarz. “He will be a great addition to our roster, and we are looking forward to seeing him on the pitch at Sports Illustrated Stadium.”
Choupo-Moting joins the Red Bulls following four years at Bayern Munich, where he won three Bundesliga titles and the FIFA Club World Cup in 2020.
He scored three goals in 34 appearances in all competitions for Bayern last season as the club failed to win the Bundesliga for the first time in 12 years.
Choupo-Moting had played a more prominent role the season before following Robert Lewandowski’s move from Bayern to Barcelona, scoring 17 goals in 30 appearances in all competitions.
Before moving to Bayern in 2020, the forward had spells at Paris Saint-Germain, where he won two Ligue 1 titles, Stoke City, Schalke, Mainz and Hamburg.
The move to MLS marks the first time he will have played domestic football outside of Europe.
Choupo-Moting has been capped 73 times by Cameroon at international level and has represented his country at three World Cups.
The Red Bulls, meanwhile, reached the 2024 MLS Cup final, but the side was beaten by the LA Galaxy.
Is Choupo-Moting the striker the Red Bulls needs?
Analysis from The Athletic’s Senior Soccer Writer Jeff Rueter
On the back of a galvanizing postseason run that led to the Red Bulls’ first MLS Cup berth since 2008, striker remained a clear area for New York to upgrade. Dante Vanzeir joined the club as a DP ahead of the 2023 season, but struggled to stay available that year due to a suspension before logging MLS’s poorest xG underperformance in 2024. Vanzeir’s four goals was -4.27 below his xG total, while his 7.7 per cent shot conversion rate was MLS’ sixth-poorest among players with at least as many goals as the Belgian.
It’s curious, then, to see New York look to replace him with another player who has struggled to convert a bounty of chances provided to them. Choupo-Moting has been a free agent since mid-May, having left Bayern Münich at the end of his most recent deal. His final season saw him struggle to capably back up Harry Kane, finishing with just two goals in 27 Bundesliga appearances totaling 704 minutes.
It isn’t as though the Cameroon international was feeding off of scraps. His chances came in with an average of 0.17 xG per shot, suggesting a 17 per cent historical likelihood of identical chances to his resulting in a goal. It’s right in line with the service that Kane (0.18) and Thomas Müller (0.17) were provided, further emphasizing how underwhelming his goal return was from those 26 attempts.
Equally surprising as the signing itself is the fact that he’ll occupy a DP slot. Choupo-Moting will turn 36 in March, and has long seen his game time declining, averaging just 748.5 minutes per campaign across the last four Bundesliga seasons. In fact, he has logged over a thousand minutes just once since leaving Stoke City in 2017-18, when he was still just 29 and feasibly in his prime as he moved to Paris Saint-Germain.
Choupo-Moting carries quite a pedigree, and the young players that New York habitually produces with its academy will hope to benefit from his veteran wisdom. Considering the salary associated with DPs who arrive on free transfers, the Red Bulls must expect that he’ll log more minutes in 2025 than he has in any of his last six seasons despite his advanced age.
(Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
