Starts: 18
Minutes: 1,513
Age: 25
Key Stat: 1.73 points per match: What NYCFC gained from the 19 games Fernández Mercau played. Before Nico, team gained 1.45 points per match across 24 played.
Nico Fernández Mercau helped turn the New York City FC season around once he arrived in 2025, helping an inconsistent team become one that, at times down the stretch, looked good enough to fuel an unexpected MLS Cup run.
Fernández Mercau was the club’s big splashy summer Designated Player signing made by New York City FC, arriving officially on July 7 for a club-record transfer fee from Elche CF in Spain’s La Liga.
He didn’t put up huge individual attacking numbers, scoring five goals and adding two assists in his 19 New York City appearances across all competitions in 2025, but Fernández Mercau bolstered the creative side of NYCFC’s attack, saved his best and biggest goals for the MLS Cup Playoffs, and was a two-way contributor, adept at creating shots and chances for teammates while also making tackles and blocks.
Nico also unexpectedly became the team’s starting center-forward after Alonso Martínez tore his ACL on international duty. The 25-year-old Argentine proved he could play on the right side of the attack, through the middle as a No 10, and even fill in as a center-forward, and early returns are that he looks well worth the big price tag.
Instant impact into a quiet start
He didn’t start the first New York City FC match in which he was eligible to appear, but when Fernández Mercau came on for his debut as a second-half substitute against FC Dallas on July 25, he flipped the proceedings in NYCFC’s favor.
In an instant reaction to that wild 4-3 New York City win in the mid-summer heat of Texas, I wrote of Fernández Mercau that his “assist to Martínez was a perfectly-timed pass that broke the Dallas defensive line and sent Martínez in alone on Maarten Paes, who he dribbled past before burying his match-winner and hat trick clincher. Fernández completed 12 of his 13 attempted passes, completed three passes into the final third, and also successfully completed two dribbles – he did a little bit of everything after he came on to replace Hannes Wolf in the 61st minute.”
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An instant impact from Nico | Courtesy NYCFC
He played on the right of the attack when coming on and picking up the winning assist in his debut and primarily held that wide attacking role going forward after this first appearance, playing as a right-sided midfielder or attacker in 12 of his 19 appearances with New York City.
Yet after the assist in his first appearance, it took Nico until his eighth game with New York City to find the back of the net with a goal of his own, and he wouldn’t record another assist until the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Philadelphia Union, when he set up Maxi Moralez’s match-winning strike.
There was a transition or adjustment period evident for Fernández Mercau and it was most noticeable during the games that immediately followed the Dallas win – Leagues Cup Phase One, in which Nico started all three matches but had little impact as NYCFC was eliminated as the 16th of 18 MLS teams in the league’s table.
Notable that at this point in his year, Fernández Mercau hadn’t played a competitive match in two months, since he played his final match to close out Elche’s LaLiga 2 season on June 1st. He seemed to acclimate to his new team and play himself back into in-season form during Leagues Cup, then finished strong over the final 10 matches of the MLS regular season.
Away excellence, occasional striker
New York City faced crucial road matches multiple times late in their 2025 season and Nico delivered in most of them, scoring his first two goals with the club in away wins at Chicago Fire FC and at the Red Bulls in one of the season’s highlights, the 3-2 road Hudson River Derby win in late September.
He saved his best individual performance of the season for the must-win Game 3 of Round One of the MLS Cup Playoffs on the road at Charlotte FC, a club that held one of the best home records in MLS heading into a best-of-three series against NYCFC in which they held home-field advantage.
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Nico Fernández with a great playoff goal | Courtesy New York City FC
Nico scored absurd goals in stoppage time of each half in Game 3 at Bank of America Stadium, his first (embedded above) opening the scoring following a length-of-the-pitch dribble, and his second extending NYCFC’s lead back to two goals and killing off any Charlotte hopes of a late equalizer.
After the dramatic win in Charlotte, Nico’s role was forced to change for the team’s two remaining postseason matches. He went from wide attacker to center-forward after Alonso Martínez went down, a role he also filled in the regular season in September when Alonso was carrying an injury that kept him out of the Starting XI for the home loss against Inter Miami CF and the away win over the Red Bulls.
Fernández Mercau had mixed results as the team’s de facto striker. He missed some great chances in his first game filling the role when they lost 4-0 at Citi Field to Messi and Miami, but he also connected beautifully with Maxi Moralez in Philadelphia to orchestrate the goal that sent New York City to the Eastern Conference Final.
His versatility helped NYCFC navigate a period of turmoil as their roster lost key players in Martínez and Andrés Perea, but he seemed more dangerous when able to play off another striker and exploit wide spaces left by opposing defenses, especially on the counter.
Oliver Strand
Big 2026 in store?
His contributions in 2025 were limited, given he only had half of a season to impress in MLS, but they were also well-rounded on both the attacking and defending side and seemed to indicate Fernández Mercau can achieve bigger and bigger things next season.
Per FBref.com, Fernández Mercau had 4.28 shot-creating actions and 0.41 goal-creating actions per 90 minutes across his 11 regular-season appearances – nearly identical rates to those posted by another of the team’s Argentine attacking midfielders, Maxi Moralez, who had 4.33 shot-creating actions and 0.46 goal-creating actions per-90 minutes while appearing in every regular season match in 2025.
Nico also made 1.73 blocks per 90 minutes and rated extremely well among MLS wingers and attacking midfielders for his rate of making tackles and interceptions.
He added the other creative threat the club’s attack was desperately missing after Santiago Rodríguez’s February departure and showed he can do the dirty work and the wide defending that Pascal Jansen values.
What position he’ll play the most in 2026 feels like a tough question to answer at this moment, given the uncertainties for New York City FC at both attacking midfielder (with Maxi Moralez’s 2026 status uncertain) and striker (with Alonso Martínez out for many months). Fernández Mercau had seven goals and 10 assists in his last season with Elche while playing mostly as a No 10, and central attacking midfielder feels like the position he was signed to fill, given Moralez’s age and given how Santi Rodríguez functioned for the team prior to Nico’s arrival.
His addition to the squad was almost enough to push New York City over the top and get them to the league’s title game, and now with a full offseason and with the potential for new Sporting Director Todd Dunivant to add more complementary pieces around him to cover for Alonso Martínez and, possibly, Maxi Moralez’s absences, Fernández Mercau could be on the cusp of a true breakout year in 2026.
He was one of the most important signings made by any MLS team during the 2025 season, even if he was (wrongly) left off the MLS website’s recent list of the 10 “most impactful” signings of the year. If he’d had more time with the team and didn’t have to essentially go through his own preseason during Leagues Cup, it’s possible his final grade drops the minus and adds a plus – he was that good in his first few months in New York City.
