Position: Midfielder
Age: 27
Key Stat: Won 64 aerial duels in 2024, 2.30 per 90 minutes, which put him in the 99th percentile of MLS midfielders.
Keaton Parks has turned into a model of consistency in the midfield for New York City FC, but in 2025 he’ll need to adjust to a new-look midfield and a new set of expectations from his new head coach.
Parks will be in his seventh season with New York City in 2025, and he’s coming off two straight generally healthy, effective seasons paired mainly with the now-departed James Sands at the base of the team’s midfield.
Who ultimately pairs with Parks in Pascal Jansen’s midfield is one of the biggest uncertainties during this NYCFC preseason, but the Parks side of the picture is clear and more certain. The 27-year-old from Plano, Texas will again be expected to do what he’s consistently done when healthy over the years for New York City.
That means again being one of the team’s key drivers of tempo and forward progress toward goal when in possesssion, it means picking out the occasional line-splitting upfield pass for a teammate, plus also using his size to dominate aerial duels and to score a few headed goals.
The baseline for a Keaton Parks seems clear and generally solid, but the question going into 2025 might be if he’s got any more ceiling, or as his new coach has put it in his first statements to the media, if he can reach another level.
The steady veteran
Parks had those two back-to-back seasons shortened by blood clot surgeries, but those have faded from memory a bit now that he’s played a combined 75 matches in all competitions for NYCFC in 2023 and 2024.
The 40 appearances in all competitions Parks made for New York City in 2024 represented a career-high. He’s now closing in on his 200th New York City FC match, up to 158 regular season appearances for the club (and 192 across all comps).
His game has stayed consistent over the years, and that remained the case in 2024. He completed the third-most passes of any New York City player, and was second on the team in the number of progressive passes he completed. The double-pivot he formed with James Sands was a formidable one, as the two were responsible for a lot of touches and decision-making during the team’s build-up play.
Only Maxi Moralez has been in the midfield longer, so the onus will be on Parks to keep doing what he’s done well during his NYCFC career while the team tries to figure itself out in early 2025. Parks is a known quantity who will be expected to maintain his recent level as an accurate passer, effective midfield connector, and occasional box-crasher.
Next attacking level?
The box-crashing part of his game wasn’t always great in 2024, a season that was a slight disappointment in front of goal for Parks. He underperformed his expected attacking statistics, with 4.1 expected goals (xG) and 3.1 expected assisted goals (xAG) in MLS matches, the highest for both figures across his six-season NYCFC career. Yet for a second straight season, Parks ended with two goals and two assists.
Parks last season put the fewest shots on target in his MLS career, six out of 30 attempts (20% accuracy). That was despite the midfielder taking the most touches (62) in the attacking penalty area he’s had in any MLS season. He was willing to get into the attacking penalty area but not an effective finisher when he got there, and nor were his teammates on a consistent enough basis.
The midfielder has never scored more than four regular-season goals for New York City and has underperformed his expected attacking output in two straight seasons, and in four of his six previous NYCFC seasons. Last season he missed some sitters — can he find those extra few goals that might make a difference for a team that might lose one of its top attacking players?
2025 expectations
Parks will have to make it work with whatever non-James Sands midfielder he ends up pairing with, be it Justin Haak, Andrés Perea, or perhaps some not yet on the roster. Given that 2025 is his seventh MLS season and he’s also one of New York City’s older players, set to turn 28 in August, Parks will also be expected to help smooth things over inside the team as they adjust to life playing under Jansen.
More goals and more assists seem like the lowest-hanging fruit you could possibly mention when discussing a player’s season outlook and expectations, but the stats and the classic eye test did show a consistent picture of missed opportunities around goal for both Parks and his teammates in 2024. He can’t control how his teammates finish the chances he creates, but Parks will be expected to improve, which should mean exceeding his usual norm scoring exactly two goals in a season.
Parks does all the box-to-box midfielder things well and answered the call for match after match during these last two seasons. NYCFC will need all that to continue in 2025, and will be hoping there’s still some more to come from one of the team’s longest-tenured players.
John Baney
had it with just a few more goals—outta all 200s he’s missed to find the net—he could have been in the top 10 MLS MF list. soccer is a cruelly simple sport. no goal, no meaning. nada.