Hooligan Soccer
·18. Februar 2025
MLS Preview: New York City FC

Hooligan Soccer
·18. Februar 2025
New York City FC (NYCFC) were announced to the public as the second MLS franchise in the greater New York metropolitan area, and the 20th franchise in the league, in May 2013. The expansion fee was $100M, a drop in the bucket for the UAE-backed City Football Group. They wasted no time in following that tried-and-true MLS strategy of signing ageing stars to be the jewels in their crown, in this case: David Villa, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo.
Their 2015 season was disappointing on many levels. Frank Lampard kept suffering injury. Overall, the team didn’t quite gel and they failed to make the playoffs. Head coach Jason Kreis was fired and they brought in Patrick Viera. The next two years saw them become a force in the league, though they would struggle in the postseason. Cycles of excellence, postseason disappointment and major personnel changes would follow for the next few years. Then in 2021, the team went on a dramatic run through the playoffs, defeating the Portland Timbers 4-2 in penalties after a 1-1 draw. They followed this up with a Campeones Cup win in 2022.
Since this peak, the team has usually performed well but failed to advance past the semi-finals in the MLS Cup.
The club’s ownership is split between the City Football Group (80%), Yankee Global Enterprises (10%) and private investor Marcelo Claure (10%). The City Football group is a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment arm of the United Arab Emirates government. They own Manchester City, plus other global soccer clubs like Mumbai City, Melbourne City, and eight others. See a theme there?
NYCFC were pretty solid last year, and haven’t made that many moves in the offseason. They do have a new coach, former AZ Alkmaar chief Pascal Jansen, but he has yet to really stamp his vision on the club yet (at least via personnel shifts).
They feature in the first game of the season, against Inter Miami down in Florida, on Feb. 22