Olivier Giroud completes free summer transfer to LAFC from AC Milan ahead of Euro 2024

LAFC look set to secure the signature of AC Milan star and France international Olivier Giroud on a free transfer as reports have emerged of a deal between the player and the club.

According to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, Giroud signed a contract to join the Black and Gold on Tuesday this summer, just a month after verbally agreeing to join MLS in March. His new contract runs until December 2025.

Giroud will join good friend and long-time France teammate Hugo Lloris in Los Angeles next season.

“Giroud can be considered as a new LAFC player,” Romano told X, just a day after AC Milan’s 2-1 loss to rival Internazionale on Monday as the Rossonieri faced this year’s Serie A title race collect.

Earlier this spring, Giroud was linked with a move to the US, Saudi Arabia and even a stint in Europe, but it appears he has now made up his mind. According to him, he will earn $3.2 million per year playing for Los Angeles FC ESPN.

The former Arsenal and Chelsea striker has scored 13 goals and eight assists in 30 Serie A games with Milan so far and is still part of Didier Deschamps’ France squad.

Giroud holds the record for most goalscorer for the French national team (57 in 131 international matches).

He moves to LA after playing Euro 2024 in Germany, where France are considered heavy favorites to win the title.

LAFC signed 39-year-old striker Kei Kamara last week to boost their scoring woes this season after parting ways with Carlos Vela in 2023.

The 38-year-old, who has scored 276 goals in almost 700 club appearances during his career, will join former France team-mate and goalkeeper Hugo Llloris in LA. Both seen at the 2022 World Cup

Nine games into the 2024 season, the Black and Gold sit in seventh place in the Western Conference with a 3-3-3 record. Giroud will strengthen an attack with MLS golden boot winner Denis Bouanga.

The MLS will be Giroud’s sixth different league of his career after starting in the National (third division), Ligue 2 and Ligue 1 in Franche with Grenoble, Istres, Tours and Montpellier, where he won the French title in 2012.

He then moved to England to play in the Premier League, first at Arsenal, where he won three FA Cups, and then at 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 first season.

Giroud, who has scored 276 goals in almost 700 appearances at club level, was also part of France’s World Cup-winning squad in 2018, appearing in all seven matches. He also played for France at two other World Cups and three European Championships.