Ramiro Enrique's recent form is a kick in the teeth for Orlando City | OneFootball

Without being overly smug, I want it to be known that I called it.

A day after Ramiro Enrique's shock move from Orlando City to Saudi Arabia's Al-Kholood was announced, I went on record publicising my bewilderment at the club's complacency.

Yes, the $3.3 million deal may have been tempting, but it left head coach Óscar Pareja alarmingly light on options at striker for the remainder of 2025. For various reasons, neither of Enrique's former strike partners, Luis Muriel and Duncan McGuire, were able to find the goals needed to fuel an effective assault on this year's MLS Cup Playoffs, as Orlando crashed out in the Eastern Conference Wild Card to Chicago Fire.

Enrique, on the other hand, has been in sensational form for his new club. Six goals in his first eight games have powered Al-Kholood - relative novices in the top flight - to ninth place in the Saudi Pro League standings and into the quarter-finals of the King's Cup.

Individually, Enrique's four league goals sees him sit joint-seventh in the race for the golden boot - above the likes of Darwin Núñez, Kingsley Coman, and Karim Benzema. Not bad for someone who was never really given a fair chance in Orlando.

Was Enrique Orlando's best striker?

There's no sugarcoating it, Muriel has been a huge disappointment since arriving in a high-profile deal from Serie A side Atalanta in 2024.

17 goals in 84 appearances since then just isn't good enough for a Designated Player in his position, especially in team that boasts as much attacking threat as Orlando do. But it's Muriel's performances that have just as big a concern.

His fitness may have improved slightly this past year, but he still looks lethargic playing in the notorious Central Florida humidity. He also likes to drop deep to get on the ball, ultimately meaning he is absent from the penalty area when an attack progresses to its crucial stages.

McGuire, on the other hand, is a proven goalscorer in Major League Soccer. More often than not clinical in front of goal, he is also lethal in the air - which makes Orlando's summer transfer dealings even more baffling when you consider that Rafael Santos, who was also sold, was McGuire's partner in crime with his inch-perfect crosses.

However, the 24-year-old has been wrecked by injuries over the past year. Successive shoulder operations - one on each limb - limited him to just 726 league minutes in 2025. Yes, he may have recovered from the last of those just in time for the run-in, but his lack of consistent football meant that he just wasn't ready to lead the line so soon.

That's where Enrique should've come in. His form for Al-Kholood is no fluke: managing eight goals in just 931 minutes this season before his departure, his minutes-per-goal ratio was among the best in the entire league.

An unnecessary own-goal

Reports from inside the club suggested that Orlando deemed Al-Kholood's offer too good to refuse, but no amount of money can make up for the harm Enrique's departure did to their MLS Cup chances.

By all accounts Enrique was content in Orlando, even though he often struggled for consistent minutes in his preferred position when both Muriel and McGuire were fit.

"As a football player you always want to play, you always want to start and have the most impact for the team you possibly can," he said when I interviewed him after his two-goal haul away at St. Louis CITY in June. "But the way I am, whether I start the game or whether I am asked to enter the game from the bench, I am always going to give one hundred percent."

Pareja corroborated his striker's faultless attitude that same night.

"Ramiro is a tremendous talent, and the best part of his game is the effort and hard work that he has [...] If he is starting the game or coming from the bench, he's always giving his all for the team," the Colombian said.

All of this is to say that Orlando didn't need to sell Enrique. Instead, they gambled on Muriel and McGuire being enough to lead them into the play-offs, and paid the price as a result.

One chapter closes, another opens

Pointless negativity aside, Enrique's departure brings with it a great chance at redemption for Orlando as we approach 2026.

Not only does the $3.3 million present a tidy profit on the original $2 million outlay (even with former club Banfield's 40% sell-on clause taken into consideration), but Orlando have also opened an under-22 initiative spot to be used during the off-season.

Following in the footsteps of Facundo Torres, Daryl Dike, and Alex Freeman, Enrique's sale also serves as yet more evidence of Orlando's proficiency in scouting and developing bright, young talent. It's surely only a matter of time before another young star emerges to take his place.

The Enrique saga may well have cost the club in the short term, but the future is certainly bright.