The LA Galaxy this week left a disappointing 2025 season behind, embarking on the coming, sure-to-be-better, can’t-be-worse campaign in the most delightful way imaginable.

Riqui Puig, the talismanic playmaker who steered all but the finish to the Galaxy’s MLS Cup championship run a year ago, has returned to the field, back with his team, heavily involved in training, and working diligently (and sometimes impatiently) toward his first game action since tearing his right anterior cruciate ligament in last year’s Western Conference final.

It’s a significant bridge from the glories of 2024 to whatever’s coming, which, expectations go, ought to be something special with a healthy, top-form Puig at the controls. Crossing that bridge will take time.

“Obviously, we missed Riqui,” head coach Greg Vanney told media at the club’s end-of-season gathering at Dignity Healthy Sports Park. “In a normal world, we’ll have Riqui back next season.”

Puig, the most electric attacker in Major League Soccer not named Messi, and that’s close, was the deep-lying heart of Vanney’s explosive, conquering, enthralling possession game last year, popping up in unexpected places, carving through defenses on the dribble or with the pass, and feeding teammates’ strikes or finishing himself. More of the same, please.

“You can already sense a different momentum in the group in training and things like that, and you can already sense a different momentum in the group and a different way of how he impacts the game,” said Vanney, whose team slipped to 14th in the West and 26th in all after a record-poor 0-12-4 start this season. “I think we had a more stable second half of the year that gave us some things that we can think about as we go into the offseason and about what next year’s group can look like, how we want to play, things like that.

“Riqui plays such a big part in that, because he’s such a unique player in how he impacts the game, and we have [go forward] with the mindset of Riqui as being a focal point. Which we didn’t have this year.”

The Galaxy has one game remaining on its calendar, a Nov. 15 friendly against Club America at Dignity Health Sports Park, and there’s a “limited chance,” Vanney said, that Puig could make it onto the field. Very “limited.” It’s likely he will not have built the “body of work” in “real, live defending and attacking situations” in training required for it to “probably make sense for him.”

Torn anterior cruciate ligaments typically sideline athletes for nine to 12 months, and Puig’s occurred 11 months ago. There’s still work to be done.

“He’s right on time in the window …,” Will Kuntz, the Galaxy general manager, said. “The timing is unfortunate, if he can’t go against Club America. It’s a longer period of time with that game, but that’s also more time to keep on getting better. It’s not like there’s nothing going on. We have preseason, we have groups that will come in, and if guys want to work together, they have access to the fields here. So it’s a normal timeline.

“I understand that people are really expecting [an imminent return]. We’ve seen how important Riqui is to this group. Our priority is making sure that Riqui is 100 percent [healthy] at all times, and sometimes that means you have to back Riqui down, because Riqui’s frothing at the mouth, trying to get out there. He wanted to play [in the Oct. 18 regular-season finale] against Minnesota, which is great, but it’s our problem to manage. He’s right on time, right on target.”

‘You can already see he’s a baller’

Puig underwent surgery Dec. 11 in Barcelona and worked through initial rehab at home. He returned to Southern California for a spell in the spring and again in summer and joined his first training session, sort of, on July 8. He primarily worked off the field with Adam Waterson, the head strength and conditioning coach, in the first months was slowly guided through stages of participation with assistant coach Nick Theslof.

He’s still somewhat limited in his what he can do, but he’s running the attack in practice.

“He is in everything, but he’s on the attacking side,” Vanney explained. “He’s not in the defensive [work], like tackling and defensive situations, so he’s ‘neutral’ [playing for whichever side is in possession]. “Which also allows us to put him in a different jersey, so guys are mindful of him.”

His teammates are excited.

“Riqui’s a special one, right?” midfielder Isaiah Parente said. “He’s a DP for a reason. [He] you can pull a rabbit out of a hat, and that’s the magic. Technique, vision, passing. Football is funny, right? You don’t always have to be the most physical. It’s a sport where your brain works faster than your feet sometimes, and I think that’s one of Riqui’s strong suits.”

Midfielder Elijah Wynder got his first real taste of Puig in person.

“You can already see he’s a baller,” he said.