Late Wednesday, Tom Bogert of The Athletic posted an article asseritng that “Manchester City are nearing a deal to sign England Under-17 international Christian McFarlane” from New York City FC. “No deal is done or signed yet, but with NYCFC and Manchester City both under the City Football Group umbrella, it is expected to be completed,” Bogert reports.
When it comes to MLS transfer news, Bogert is as good as they get. It’s safe to assume that the deal is, indeed, in advanced stages and could be made final soon.
If true, McFarlane will be the fourth NYCFC Academy product to sign with a major European club, following Jack Harrison (Manchester City), Gio Reyna (Borrusia Dortmund), and Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach). All three are regular starters in top-flight football: McFarlane is in good company.
Nick Cushing: He will be in the squad for Miami
But you can understand if New York City fans are feeling a little frosty at hearing the news. McFarlane has been one of the brightest prospects in the club’s system ever since he signed a Homegrown contract with the club in 2021 at the tender age of 14, and the left-back is being carefully developed at the Etihad City Football Academy in the rolling hills of Rockland County.
The NYCFC faithful have heard transfer rumors surrounding the defender since last year, when Andrew Leigh wrote in these pages about “a report that McFarlane had visited the Manchester City training grounds and that there were discussions over a potential 2024 move to the club at the top of the City Football Group food chain.”
They have also patiently waited to see the England youth international (he was born in Basildon, England, and has 17 caps over three years) take the field for the Senior Team.
Well, that will almost certainly happen tomorrow, when New York City play Inter Miami CF in Ft. Lauderdale — it looks like we will finally see the MLS debut of McFarlane.
Head coach Nick Cushing said as much in the team’s pregame press conference on Wednesday afternoon:
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In the first part of his response, Cushing bats back a question about McFarlane signing with Manchester City. “That’s news to me,” he says.
Then Cushing makes a simple declarative statement: “He is returning from England duty, and will be in the squad for Miami.”
Cushing goes on to explain that with starting left-back Kevin O’Toole out after suffering a concussion in Saturday’s loss to FC Cincinnati, McFarlane will almost surely appear in Saturday’s game. It’s more a question of whether he will be in the Starting XI, or come on as a substitute. “It’s really difficult to say if a guy is going to start a game, or play parts in the game,” Cushing said.
That little “DEBUT” patch
Huzzah! The day is here: McFarlane, who is listed as 6′ tall and officially weighs in at just 139 pounds (although he looks like he bulked up since last stepped on the official MLS scale), will be issued a 24/7 Kit with that little “DEBUT” patch on the right breast, and take the field at Chase Stadium tomorrow night.
That means that the 17-year-old left-back will (checks notes) face the most lethal attack in MLS, with 13 goals in six games, and handle a forward line likely spearheaded by Luis Suarez and Leonardo Campana, with Sergio Busquets pulling the strings in the middle and Julian Gressel flying up the flank. Lionel Messi isn’t expected to start, but he might come off the bench as a Super-Sub d’Or.
Sarcasm aside, there’s a lot that could go right for McFarlane. He’s coming off two strong performances for the England U-17 team. He scored his first professional goal in England’s 5-0 romp over Hungary in a UEFA EURO U-17 qualifier, then played the full 90 minutes in a 2-1 loss to France that had England down one player after a red card was shown in the 25th minute.
England now have six points after three games, with 11 goals scored and just three goals allowed. Games like these do a lot for a player’s confidence.
A baptism by fire
Still, make no mistake: McFarlane’s appearance tomorrow in front of a sell-out crowd on a breezy, humid South Florida night will be a baptism by fire.
McFarlane’s development at New York City has been handled carefully up to this point. The club, quite admirably, are careful not to push their prospects too hard, or too fast. McFarlane made 20 appearances for New York City FC II last year (16 of which were starts), and just seven appearances in 2022 (two of which were starts).
McFarlane has yet to make an appearance for NYCFC in a playoff game or a tournament. All of his professional minutes have come in the low-pressure settings of MLS NEXT Pro league games.
They’re bringing him up slowly, which reflects the club’s philosophy. In addition to McFarlane, NYCFC have four promising Homegrown players under the age of 18 in Maximo Carrizo (16), Drew Baiera (17), Jonathan Shore (16), and Zidane Yañez (16), and you get the sense that New York City are less interested in flipping them like a 57th St condo than developing them into high-quality players who accomplish great things over their long careers.
McFarlane’s Senior Team career will likely begin tomorrow night. We’ll be there for it, along with the millions (billions? trillions?) of viewers activating on the Messi Cam option on Apple TV to watch the GOAT sit on the bench, then warm up on the sideline, and finally take the field. They’ll watch in the hope that Messi scores.
We’ll watch in the hope that McFarlane dispossess Messi, makes Gressel look foolish, silences Suarez, forces Busquets consider early retirement, and helps shut down Miami in what will later be regarded as a generational shift of soccerballing excellence. For years, the best players in the world came through Barcelona’s La Masia. Now, they are driven by their parents up the Palisades Parkway to New York City’s Etihad City Football Academy.
Or: We’ll hope that McFarlane shows positional intelligence, makes smart passes, and holds his own against an attack that will be out for blood.
First/final season with the Senior Team
The fact is, we’ll likely see a fair amount of McFarlane this season. Bogert reports in The Athletic that the defender will “not move to England until after he turns 18 next January,” and will spend the rest of the season with New York City.
Which is good news for NYCFC, which have no depth at left-back. After O’Toole took over the starting role at the end of the 2023 season, the club declined the option of Brian Cufré, the previous number-one choice. (Cufré, who signed with Vélez Sarsfield in Argentina, was recently arrested in a rape investigation along with three of his teammates.) There is no other regular Senior Team player who plays that position, and with O’Toole sidelined for an indefinite period of time as he recovers from his concussion, this New York City team will likely need to rely on McFarlane on game day.
“He’s a really valuable member of our squad, and we only have one left-back,” Cushing said of McFarlane in his press conference. “So, in my opinion, he’s going nowhere,” he added, addressing the trade rumors.
We’ll see about that. In the meantime, we’re looking forward to watching McFarlane play.
