Officially, Major League Soccer has yet to announce the dates of the winter and summer transfer windows. It's not unusual for MLS to wait until the last minute before making the information public: Last year, the league announced the dates in mid-January, a little more than two weeks before the opening of the winter window.
That leaves transferheads guessing about the dates. The best The Athletic could come up with in their transfer rundown is that the dates "have not been confirmed, but last year it ran from January 31 until April 23."
But here at Hudson River Blue, we think we know the dates of the 2026 MLS transfer windows. It looks like the 2026 winter transfer window will open on Friday, January 23, and close on Thursday, March 26. In addition, it looks like the 2026 summer transfer window will open on Friday, July 10, and close on Thursday, August 27.
As a reminder, these transfer window dates dictate when MLS teams can officially bring players in who are under contract with clubs overseas and require International Transfer Certificates to move.
In addition, it looks like the NWSL transfer windows were also registered: The winter window will run from Monday, January 26, to Monday, March 16, and the summer window will run from Tuesday, July 14, to Monday, September 7.
How did we arrive at those dates? The leagues of all countries must register their transfer windows with FIFA. In recent days, those dates appeared under the United States entry.1 (See screenshot below.)
Will the windows that United States soccer seemed to register with FIFA prove to be correct? We'll know in a week or two, when MLS announces the transfer windows and other key dates for the 2026 season.
Andrew Leigh
1 Full credit for the sleuthing goes to two members of the newly elected Executive Committee of North American Soccer Reporters. President Laurel Pfahler of Queen City Press (and regular Oppo Research talking head) suggested referencing FIFA site — we looked, but it wasn't updated. Then, Director of Communications CJ Coreschi of Pittsburgh City Paper (also an Oppo Research alum) followed up, and let us know that the United States dates had dropped. Teamwork makes the dreamwork.
