KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Sporting Kansas City has signed Brazilian forward Andre Luiz as a designated player to a five-year contract for what the Major League Soccer club has called a club-record transfer fee from Greek club Olympiacos FC.
The exact financial outlay for Luiz was not disclosed, but the previous club record was $7.5 million that Sporting KC plaid Mexican club Chivas to acquire Alan Pulido. The deal for Luiz is pending the receipt of his visa and international transfer certificate.
“Andre is a dynamic player with pace, directness and technical ability who is coming off an excellent season in Portugal and Greece,” said David Lee, the president of soccer operations for Sporting KC. “At the age of 24, he fits with our model of adding quality players to our roster that still have their prime years ahead of them. Andre was highly coveted in some of the top leagues in the world so we are delighted that he has decided to commit his long-term future to Sporting KC.”
Luiz is coming off a breakout season that began in Portugal, where he had seven goals and six assists for Rio Ave FC. He moved to Olympiacos last January for the balance of the season, helping the perennial power finish second in Greece's top league.
Luiz began his career at America Football Club in his native Rio de Janeiro, then played in the academy system of Flamengo, eventually earning a professional opportunity with the Brazilian club's first team. He went on loan to Portuguese club Estrela da Amadora during the 2023-2024 season, then was acquired by Rio Ave FC in January 2025.
Sporting KC, which is 4-2-13 and last in the Western Conference, has been aggressively rebuilding from the ground up under new principal owner Peter Mallouk. That includes new front-office executives working alongside first-year manager Raphael Wicky, and a series of bold roster moves, including the ultimately failed pursuit of Egyptian star Mohammad Sallah.
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FILE - Leverkusen's Alex Grimaldo holds Olympiacos' Andre Luiz during a Champions League playoff soccer match between Olympiacos and Bayer 04 Leverkusen in Piraeus port near Athens, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Minnesota's attorney general sued the governor of Texas on Tuesday, seeking to compel the extradition of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent charged with wounding a man and then lying to justify the shooting during the agency's crackdown in Minneapolis.
Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a federal judge to bar the sheriff in Cameron County, Texas, from releasing ICE agent Christian Castro, and to order Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to sign his extradition warrant so that Minnesota officers can take custody.
Minnesota officials have clashed with the federal government over who has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute federal officers for on-duty conduct. Ellison is a Democrat and Abbott is a Republican ally of President Donald Trump.
Castro was arrested in Texas in May on Minnesota charges of assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 wounding of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Castro, 52, is accused of firing a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg with a bullet that lodged in a child’s bedroom wall. Prosecutors say Castro then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
Ellison told a news conference that unless he's extradited, Castro could be released from jail next week -- 90 days since he was detained -- under Texas law. And if he's freed, Castro could slip into Mexico from the border town where he's being held, Ellison said. The lawsuit said Castro has been making calls from jail to a woman in Mexico, talking “about marrying her and buying a house in Mexico when he is released.”
“Christian Castro has been charged with breaking the law in Minnesota,” Ellison said. “He must face justice in Minnesota. Gov. Abbott should have granted Gov. Walz’s extradition request long ago and is required to do so now.”
It was not immediately known if Castro had a lawyer who could speak for him. Online court records in Minnesota and county jail records in Texas did not list a defense attorney.
Abbott's office said in a statement that it would not comment on “pending extradition matters.”
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said the legal action to compel Castro’s extradition “should be a completely unnecessary lawsuit.” She said jail officials and prosecutors in Texas have been “very cooperative,” and that an extradition “is not supposed to be controversial.”
The office of Cameron County Sheriff Manny Trevino declined to comment Tuesday on the case.
Authorities say Sosa-Celis was shot after Castro and another officer chased a different man, Alfredo Alejandro Aljorna, to the Minneapolis apartment duplex where he and Sosa-Celis lived. Sosa-Celis and Aljorna were legally in the U.S., according to Minnesota officials.
Federal authorities initially accused Sosa-Celis and Aljorna of beating an officer. A federal judge later dismissed the charges, and ICE and the Justice Department opened an investigation into whether agents lied about what happened.
Regardless, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has called Moriarty's prosecution of Castro “unlawful and nothing more than a political stunt,” saying only federal authorities have jurisdiction in the case.
The federal government took a similar stance following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti during the Minneapolis enforcement surge. Moriarty sued the Trump administration to gain access to evidence in those cases before federal prosecutors turned it over last month.
The extradition lawsuit Ellison filed in U.S. District Court in Texas cites a 1987 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that compliance with the Constitution’s extradition clause is mandatory, affording no discretion to the governor or courts of a state where a defendant is being held.
Moriarty said that since Castro’s arrest, Texas has extradited three unrelated criminal defendants without incident to Minnesota.
“Gov. Abbott has received communication with us on an ongoing basis, including recently,” Ellison said. “We have to take the position that they are refusing to honor the extradition request.”
Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. AP journalist Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, right, speaks during a news conference as Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty looks on, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
FILE - Tear gas surrounds federal law enforcement officers as they leave a scene after a shooting on Jan. 14, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
