The first player David Lee signed after he was named New York City FC sporting director in November, 2019, was a 17-year-old Academy product named Tayvon Gray. It was a canny decision: Gray has gone on to make 117 starts, logging 7,616 minutes after becoming a mainstay for the NYCFC defense.

Lee next signed Keaton Parks, inking the loanee on a permanent transfer, then he signed Gudi Thórarinsson, picking up the defender on a free transfer. The following day he signed Gedion Zelalem, and New York City became the latest club to take a gamble on the former Arsenal wunderkind — and lose.

And so began Lee’s run as the club’s Sporting Director, a tenure that lasted nearly six years and saw him sign 56 players. When news broke of Lee’s departure for Sporting Kansas City, where he will become President of Soccer Operations and General Manager, the contributors here at Hudson River Blue looked at his legacy, and how his signings both created a winning culture within the team and could sometimes frustrate a fanbase that wanted more from the second-biggest club in the City Football Group empire.

We also posted a Reader Poll, and asked you to tell us what you feel were Lee’s top signings, and his biggest flops. Your consensus choices for best and worst signing top each list below, taking the clear #1 spot in both categories. We filled out the rest based on the Reader Poll and on our own internal HRB staff debates and discussions.

The 5 worst signings by David Lee

5. Mounsef Bakrar

When Mounsef Bakrar was brought in at the end of the 2023 season for a reported $2 million from NK Istra in Croatia, it was to be the team’s franchise striker. But one of the most likable players ever to suit up for New York City also proved to be one of the club’s least-productive goalscorers. It wasn’t just the poor overall production – Bakrar had just nine goals and one assist over 59 appearances for NYCFC, averaging one goal involvement for every 270 minutes – it was the painfully long gaps between scoring. He went 12 appearances without a goal to start the 2024 season, then 10 appearances without a goal to finish the year.

Bakrar would be higher on this list if not that A) he was sold to Dinamo Zagreb for a reported $1 million, recouping some of the original fee, and B) he’s scoring buckets for his new club, with six goals in nine appearances — including a hat trick in his first start for his new club, and a Europa League goal against Turkish giants Fenerbahçe SK. It tells us that Bakrar wasn’t an out-and-out bad signing, just not the right player for New York City.

4. Braian Cufré

When Braian Cufré was loaned in at the start of the 2023 season, NYCFC already had a solid starting left-back in Malte Amundsen and backup in Kevin O’Toole. But Cufré pushed out Amundsen, who was sold to Columbus Crew — where he went on to play an instrumental role in the club winning MLS Cup that year. Inexplicably, Cufré had the sixth-highest salary in the club, out-earning Keaton Parks and Maxi Moralez. But Cufré lost his starting spot to O’Toole, and his option was declined after the season ended.

Was Cufré a catastrophic signing? Not really. But he embodied the dysfunction of that 2023 squad, which remains the only New York City team to miss the playoffs during Lee’s tenure as sporting director. It was a team that desperately needed to replace important players who left in the offseason. But rather than bring in a striker, creative midfielder, or central defender, Lee signed a third left-back, paid him more than he was worth, let him displace a solid option, watched him finish the season on the bench, then let him go at the end of the year.

3. Matías Pellegrini

So nice he was claimed off waivers twice, Matías Pellegrini remains the biggest head-scratcher in the history of New York City transfers. Once a Designated Player for Inter Miami CF, Pellegrini first came to NYCFC in August 2022, when he was claimed off waivers. The attacking midfielder made just four appearances, totaling 63 minutes, then his option was declined at the end of the season. A little more than one month later, Pellegrini was claimed off waivers again and signed to a $1.1 million contract that made him the fourth-highest paid player on the team.

Pellegrini scored once in 24 appearances that year, making it one of the costliest goals in club history when measured by money or by minutes.

2. Talles Magno

It wasn’t just that Talles Magno never lived up to the expectations of a Designated Player who twice made the MLS “22 Under 22” list. It was exhausting to watch this talented but mentally fragile attacker come up short game after game. Talles Magno was one of the best dribblers in MLS, but he had trouble using those moments of brilliance to create chances for himself or for others, and he never fully looked comfortable in the squad or the league.

Signed the middle of the 2021 season at the age of 18 through 2027 for a reported $8 million (then the second-highest fee in club history), Talles Magno was then seen as one of the most promising young players ever to come to MLS. He was also widely considered to be more a CFG than NYCFC signing, a player assigned to New York City by the mothership. Was he even a Lee signing? No matter: He joined the team on Lee’s watch, and most assumed he would be developed and sold to a European club at a profit, or possibly even ascend to the roster at Manchester City.

That didn’t happen. He was made a starter in 2022, eventually asked to move from his preferred position on the left to a more central attacking role when Taty Castellanos left at midseason. The following year he became the team’s marquee player, scoring four goals in 30 league appearances and headlining the club’s most disappointing season since 2015. Talles Magno returned at the start of the 2024 season, but by then there was no room on the squad for his step-overs and missed chances.

The experiment ended when Lee sent Talles Magno to Brazilian giants SC Corinthians on loan in August 2024. Talles Magno scored in his debut, but he added just one more league goal that season, and scored just once in 21 league appearances this year.

But Talles Magno continues to constrict New York City’s squad. Lee seemed weary of signing a third active DP while Talles Magno remained on the roster – the club could add another DP while the winger remains on loan, but NYCFC is responsible for his contract through 2027, and could find itself overextended if he’s sent home.

Lee’s successor will need to find a place to park Talles Magno after his loan expires in December.

1. Jovan Mijatović

No need for a drumroll: Lee’s worst signing is Jovan Mijatović. He took 77% of the vote in the Reader Poll, and is the consensus candidate among HRB staff. Never has this country felt so unified.

The Serbian striker, who was signed for a reported club-record $10 million fee at the tender age of 18, made just two league starts across 11 appearances before getting sent to OH Leuven in Belgium on loan at the start of this season. It was hard to watch him play. Mijatović was a dead-end every time he stepped on the field, a slow and clumsy player who was disconnected from the rest of the team. Or, as one reader put it, he was “a lumbering bear” who was waiting for the ball to be fed to him.

Mijatović’s lowest points came when he started for NYCFC II in their charmed run in the US Open Cup. He played the full 90 minutes against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, which the Baby Blues won 1-0 despite a miserable night from the striker: Mijatović had zero shots, zero dribbles, and just one touch in the opposition’s box. He came up empty again two weeks later, when NYCFC II lost 3-0 to New Mexico United. The loss can’t be pinned on Mijatović – that honor belongs to defender Samuel Owusu, who earned a straight red card in the 54th minute – but the striker could have given NYCFC II an early lead to protect. Instead, Mijatović placed zero shots on target, missing two big chances, while getting played off the field by a Division II team from the USL Championship.

Again, this feels more a CFG than a David Lee signing. Manchester City were rumored to be interested in Mijatović after scoring eight goals in 14 appearances for Red Star Belgrade during the 2023-24 season. But it was Lee who put a ring on it and signed the Serbian through the 2028 season.

Mijatović is on loan with OH Leuven through June 2026, but he hasn’t exactly torn up the Belgian league. The 20-year-old has zero goals and one assist in seven starts so far this season as OH Leuven struggle to score and now sit three places below the relegation zone.

Will Lee’s successor find another home for a pricey striker who ranks in the 4th percentile in goals scored and 20th percentile in shot attempts? Possibly. But it’s highly unlikely that the new sporting director will recoup much of that club-record fee.

The 5 best signings by David Lee

5. Gabriel Pereira

Gabriel Pereira’s time at New York City passed like a fever dream. The winger scored 14 goals and added five assists across 32 starts and 16 substitute appearances over two partial seasons. But more to the point, Pereira was good business. Signed from Corinthians in 2022 for a reported $5 million fee, he was sold to Qatar’s Al-Rayyan for a reported $10 million just 17 months later.

That incoming fee bankrolled the club’s 2023 summer signings, when Lee was like a sailor on shore leave and added Bakrar, Julián Fernández, Alonso Martínez, Andrés Perea, and Birk Risa, plus brought back Maxi Moralez. Look at the personnel, and you can see that 2025’s surprising run towards the top of the table is rooted in Pereira’s profitable departure in 2023.

4. Keaton Parks

Big Bird officially joined New York City in 2019, when Claudio Reyna was still sporting director. But it was Lee who paid a $1 million fee to permanently sign Keaton Parks from SL Benfica at the start of the 2020 season, following a solid MLS debut season while with NYCFC on loan in 2019.

What a bargain. Parks has become a foundational player and one of the best box-to-box midfielders in the league. The midfielder has been sidelined in recent years with blood clot issues, but he’s a workhorse when healthy: Since joining the team permanently in 2020, Parks has made 140 league starts, logging 11,112 minutes over 150 appearances.

3. Santiago Rodríguez

If Gabi makes this list because he was good business, and Keaton makes it because of his production, Santiago Rodríguez is here because of a little from Column A, and a little from Column B.

Loaned in from sister club Montevideo Torque halfway through the 2021 season, he grew into team and was an instrumental member of the squad who won the title that year. As the 2022 season progressed, he looked to be the heir-apparent to Maxi Moralez, whose Designated Player contract was set to expire that year.

Indeed, Santi became the team’s No 10 in 2023, but that was only after Lee flew to Uruguay to woo the midfielder after he returned home at the end of the loan. Lee signed Rodríguez to a Designated Player contract, and he was easily the best player on that doomed 2023 team.

Rodríguez put up the best numbers of his career in 2024, scoring 12 goals and adding 10 assists in league play. But he was a step behind the league’s best No 10s that year. It wasn’t the numbers as much as the vibes: He couldn’t change a game the way that a Luciano Acosta, Evander, Emil Forsberg, or Riqui Puig could.

Would Rodríguez take that next step the following year? We’ll never know. Brazil’s Botafogo came knocking before the start of the season and offered a reported $17 million to sign Santi. That gave Lee the green light to get all spendy once again, and pay a combined $13 million in fees to sign Nico Fernández Mercau, Aiden O’Neill, and Raul Gustavo. It’s still early days for the three players, but they arrived at NYCFC fully formed and in their prime, and look to be write-their-name-in-ink starters in the the coming seasons as this club once again becomes a perennial contender.

2. Alonso Martínez

Signing Alonso Martínez is maybe the single greatest deal in the history of New York City. The bargain-bin winger who joined on a free transfer in 2023 as an afterthought, a depth piece who could provide some cover for other players over the course of the season, emerged as one of the most lethal natural strikers in MLS. Martínez is now one of the greatest goalscorers in club history. His 33 league goals over two seasons trail only club legends David Villa (77 goals in four season) and Taty Castellanos (50 goals in five seasons).

But signing the striker in 2023 was only the beginning. The original contract was through the 2025 season with options for 2026 and 2027. In February, Lee signed Alonso to a new deal that keeps him at the club through 2027, with options for 2028 and 2029. Martínez now makes $800,333 a year in guaranteed compensation, significantly more than the $328,483 he made in 2024 but significantly less than the $3 million-plus paid to comparable strikers such as Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, Hugo Cuypers, Dejan Joveljić, or Sam Surridge.

1. Matt Freese

According to HRB readers, Lee’s single best signing is Matt Freese. It was a close vote, but Freese beat Martínez 29% to 24%, with additional votes going to Fernández Mercau, Parks, and Rodriguéz.

Freese follows the same playbook as Alonso: Picked up for next to nothing in 2023, Freese started the season serving as the backup goalkeeper to Luis Barraza. Freese eventually took over the starting spot, and was signed to a contract extension at the end of 2023 season that would keep him at the club through 2026 with an option for 2027. It was a smart move. Freese established himself as one of the best goalkeepers in MLS in 2024, and put himself in contention to be the starter for the US men’s national team in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

But just last month, Freese dropped the bombshell at the Men In Blazers Do it Live: New York event that he agreed to a deal that will keep him at New York City through 2030. It’s the longest contract on NYCFC’s books, and arguably the most important: The ever-improving Freese could become the most dominant goalkeeper in the league, and and anchor the defense of a team that will be looking to fill the trophy case that is currently under construction at Etihad Park in Queens.

Freese “checks every box,” as one HRB reader put it. And along with Gray, he bookends Lee’s time at New York City.