New York City FC 2025 Roster Profile Update: 5 Takeaways

Major League Soccer today released the fall update for the 2025 Club Roster Profiles for all 30 teams, giving us a complete picture of where the New York City FC roster stands as the regular season winds down and the playoffs get ready to heat up.

This update doesn’t hold any surprises. As we saw from the roster released back in February, NYCFC still maintain some flexibility despite adding Nico Fernández Mercau to a Designated Player contract, and signing Aiden O’Neill and Raul Gustavo.

One big difference between this roster announcement and the earlier disclosure: There is no longer a summary of the General Allocation Money position for each club. That’s too bad — those were fun numbers to crunch.

Read on for five observations about the update to NYCFC’s 2025 Roster Profile.

1. The roster is (almost) complete…

In February, New York City filled just 25 of the available 30 roster spots. While it was clear that the squad was thin to anybody paying attention to the club during preseason, that number quantified just how few active players were available.

Just 16 players were on the Senior Roster then. Not only that, the nine-player Supplemental Roster included six players who had never appeared in an MLS game, plus the injured Malachi Jones.

NYCFC’s current roster features 27 players, 17 on the Senior Roster and 10 on the Supplemental Roster. Five of those Supplemental players made their MLS debuts, with Nico Cavallo, Seymour Reid, and Jonny Shore regularly contributing to the First Team.

2. …but there is still flexibility

Despite adding a Designated Player in Fernández and two TAM Players in O’Neill and Raul Gustavo – and despite using International Slots for all three – the club still have a lot of flexibility heading into the 2026 season.

NYCFC have an available Designated Player slot while Talles Magno remains on loan. The club also have two International Slots and two U22 Initiative Players between the ones that are unfilled in both categories and ones that are occupied by the loaned-out Jovan Mijatović.

Then there’s the fact that NYCFC are carrying 27 players instead of 30. The club could sign another three players and be in full compliance with MLS roster rules.

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3. Tayvon Gray no longer occupies a Homegrown designation

He aged out when he turned 23 in August.

4. Not much dead wood

The roster we saw back in February included many question marks. Would Mounsef Bakrar and Birk Risa get back into the Starting XI? How much would Maxi Moralez play? Who would become the backup to Matt Freese with the departure of Luis Barraza?

Not only have all those issues been addressed (best of luck to Barkar and Risa), but head coach Pascal Jansen is making full use of the players at his disposal: Out of the 17 players on the Senior Roster, 15 saw playing time in the past week. The only two who didn’t see the field were Mitja Ilenič and the injured Keaton Parks.

Only four players on the 27-person roster have yet to see playing time in MLS this year, aside from the injured Jones: Defenders Prince Amponsah and Max Murray, and goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh.

5. Key contracts about to run out

Last night, New York City announced signing goalkeeper Matt Freese to a contract extension that will keep him with the club through 2030. He’s one of several everyday starters who we should expect to see take the field when NYCFC first play at Etihad Park in 2027.

But there are a handful of important players whose contracts run out soon. Justin Haak and Maxi Moraelz have contracts that end this year. Likewise, Andrés Perea, Ilenič, Kevin O’Toole, and Strahinja Tanasijević have contracts that end in 2025, but they have options that could at least keep them through the 2026 season.

Ilenič is the player to flag in this context. The 20-year-old Slovenian youth international has just 10 starts through 29 games, and last appeared in the 4-3 road win over FC Dallas on July 25 in Matchday 24. He saw regular playing time under former head coach Nick Cushing, but he looks to be on the fringe of the team under Jansen.

We’ll likely learn the future of Haak and Moralez after the end of the season, when they sit down to talk with the club. But we should have a good idea of what will happen to Ilenič in the next few weeks, and if Jansen decides to give him playing time.