New York City FC officially signed Standard de Liége midfielder Aiden O’Neill for a reported €2.5 million transfer fee, giving him a contract that runs through the 2028 season and is not at the Designated Player salary level.
The defensive midfielder was Standard Liége’s captain at the time of his departure and he arrives in New York City expected to become a steady, veteran presence in Pascal Jansen’s midfield.
Here are some of the bigger things to know about the 26-year-old Australian: How he got here, what to expect from him with this New York City squad, and what it might mean to have a first-ever Australian at NYCFC on the eve of the FIFA World Cup.
Took a big chance in England
Born in Brisbane, Australia, O’Neill left home when he was 14 and moved to England set on playing his way to a first professional contract.
Andy Jones of The Athletic told an excellent, detailed story (subscription required/worth it, though) of O’Neill’s gradual climb from unsigned teenager to Premier League footballer, explaining that O’Neill showed up in England in 2014 with no try-outs scheduled and without a clear path for starting his professional career.
He eventually impressed Burnley FC, first earning a trial and then getting an official scholarship offer from the club’s youth academy. He’d work his way up Burnley’s youth squad ranks, eventually making his Premier League debut at 18 years old.
O’Neill got sent on by Sean Dyche as a late substitute against Liverpool FC in the 90th minute of Burnley’s 2-0 upset victory at Turf Moor on August 20, 2016.
He would only make two more Premier League appearances for Burnley, instead spending the bulk of his years in England playing elsewhere on loan, at third-tier League One clubs Fleetwood Town (27 appearances) and Oldham Athletic (15 appearances).
O’Neill and his family’s gamble going to England paid off, as he joins New York City having made 205 appearances for seven different clubs since making his professional debut in 2016.
Familiar to Grand Finals
O’Neill left England to go play back home in Australia beginning in August 2018, first on loan to Central Coast Mariners FC for the 2018-2019 season, then on loan to Brisbane Roar for the 2019-2020 season.
He’d make a permanent move from Burnley to Melbourne City in September 2020, though his first year in Melbourne was curtailed by a serious back injury that required a three-month absence beginning in January 2021.
Aiden O’Neill and New York City FC did end up with something in common in 2021: They each won a Cup Final. O’Neill recovered from his back injury and earned his spot back in the Melbourne City squad, going on to play a pivotal role in the team beating Sydney FC 3-1 in the A-League’s Grand Final played on June 27, 2021.
O’Neill had an assist on the third goal scored by Scott Galloway to seal the victory and was credited with the most tackles won of any player in the match. The midfielder played a pretty direct part in Melbourne City capturing a first-ever championship, so NYCFC will be hoping he can recreate some of that big-game success in MLS.
It wasn’t a perfect record for O’Neill and Melbourne City in the Grand Final, as although the team finished atop the A-League’s season standings for all three of O’Neill’s seasons in Melbourne, they lost the Grand Final to O’Neill’s ex-club Central Coast Mariners to miss out on the top prize in 2022-2023.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Mixed success in Belgium
O’Neill was captain at Standard de Liège but it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the midfielder after he arrived in the summer of 2023. Standard won none of O’Neill’s first six starts in Belgium, with the Australian seeing the team go 3W-6D-7L (0.94 points per match) while he was included in the Starting XI during his debut 2023-2024 season in the Jupiler Pro League. That record with O’Neill as a starter improved slightly in 2024-2025, 8W-6D-11L (1.20 points per match), but it’s not been the best two seasons for O’Neill with Standard.
Plus/minus is not the most informative stat, telling a story about a team more than a clear one about an individual player’s contribution to their team. Still, O’Neill holds Standard Liege’s second-worst plus/minus in 2024-2025, a -12 across his 25 appearances. Even though the team’s record with him in the starting lineup was worse during the 2023-2024 season, O’Neill actually had a better plus/minus that year, only a -8 in his 23 appearances in 2023-2024.
O’Neill also had a better individual statistical season during his 2023-2024 campaign, at least when compared to other midfielders in comparable European leagues like the English Championship, Dutch Eredivisie, and Portugal’s Primeira Liga.
O’Neill looked the part of a strong No 6 during his 2023-2024 season with Standard, comparing favorably to midfielders in other European competitions based on his pressure-adjusted tackles, the percentage of dribblers he successfully tackled, and the percentage of headers he won, to name just a few. Despite good signs during his first year, O’Neill’s defensive stats and his involvement in possession both experienced drop-offs in the 2024-2025 season that ends with him moving to NYCFC.
New York City will be hoping it’s acquiring the 2023-2024 version of O’Neill, or they’ll be hoping to get him back to that kind of player now that he’s plying his trade in Major League Soccer.
World Cup cycle looms
Australia national team coach Tony Popovic regularly relied on O’Neill in his midfield during 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying and this move to New York City could be vital as O’Neill tries to hold on to his spot and help the Socceroos make that World Cup.
For New York City FC purposes, you may want to start rooting for Australia, especially since O’Neill looks poised for a big role in the NYCFC midfield. Australia is deep into trying to qualify for next year’s World Cup, set to be played here in the United States, plus Mexico and Canada.
O’Neill and his countrymen are in second place in Group C in the Third Round of AFC qualifying, with two qualifying matches still to play during this round.
The teams to finish in the top two spots of each of the three groups for this round will automatically earn spots in the World Cup field, while the teams to finish in third and fourth place continue to play crucial qualifiers in the Fourth Round of qualifying.
Right now, Australia sits in second place in its group with 13 points, a distant seven points behind group leaders Japan, but with only a three-point cushion over Saudi Arabia in third place.
The final two matches of this qualifying round see Australia host Japan in Perth on June 5, then travel to Jeddah to play Saudi Arabia on June 10 – Australia could officially punch its ticket to the World Cup soon, and O’Neill will be expecting to use his early time in New York City to get as prepared as possible to help the Aussies with those two huge June matches.
O’Neill went all 90 minutes in a 0-0 draw in Australia’s first meeting with Saudi Arabia as part of this group stage in November 2024, though he was not in the squad when Australia earned a 1-1 draw with Japan in Japan in October 2024.
O’Neill is very much a national team player and Australia fans will be hoping his move to New York City helps him and helps the Socceroos, especially with these huge games on the horizon. If O’Neill succeeds with NYCFC, expect to see him disappear for stretches to make the long journey to play for his country – the gift and the curse of signing national team players to join a league that doesn’t always stop playing meaningful games during international breaks.
Profile: Physical, disruptive, knows CFG-ball
O’Neill likes to make tackles in the midfield and plays a physical style that sees him whistled for a healthy number of fouls. He finished among the top 10 A-League players for tackles won in back-to-back seasons with Melbourne City FC from 2021-2023 and was credited with the ninth-most interceptions in the A-League (38) during the 2021-2022 season.
He also placed in the top 10 for most fouls committed in three different league seasons, most recently placing seventh in 2024-2025 for committing 39 fouls for Standard Liége before his departure. He got shown the second-most yellow cards in the A-League, 10, while on loan with Central Coast Mariners in 2018-19. He’ll be adding some steel to the NYCFC midfield and might quickly make himself known to the PRO Referees who oversee MLS matches.
It shouldn’t be too hard for O’Neill to pick up the nuances of the preferred NYCFC style of play, on account of those seasons playing for Melbourne City FC. O’Neill played regularly in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation with Melbourne City, systems so far preferred by Pascal Jansen in his early days in charge of New York City. He’s used to the role he’ll likely be asked to fill, be it in a double-pivot next to someone like Keaton Parks, or if he’s more a lone stay-at-home defensive midfielder should Jansen try something like the 4-1-4-1 he deployed on the road against New England Revolution on Matchday 9.
O’Neill is widely viewed as a replacement for James Sands, though the Australian midfielder might be more of a threat in front of goal than Sands, as O’Neill has also produced some impressive finishes while scoring 11 goals across his 205 appearances. He’s signed to be more a destroyer than a goalscorer, but the main thing Aiden O’Neill is there to do is improve the NYCFC midfield, which he seems capable of accomplishing.
We've got some player on our hands 😮💨🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/zQjmRhi5iY
— New York City FC (@newyorkcityfc) April 25, 2025
