Starts: 34
Minutes: 2,950
Age: 27
Key Stat: 10 game-winning goals in the regular season, best in the league
Alonso Martínez was New York City’s most outstanding player in 2025. Full stop.
For the second straight season, the Costa Rican recorded more than 20 goals and assists in all competitions, firing home 21 goals and recording two assists across Major League Soccer and Leagues Cup action. His 17 regular-season goals were far and away the highest tally in the squad, and good for a Top 10 finish in the MLS Golden Boot race.
Though Martínez’s season was abruptly ended in the midst of the team’s playoff run after tearing his ACL while on international duty, the striker more than carried his weight this year as New York City capped off 2025 with an Eastern Conference Final appearance.
Offensive catalyst
Martínez is everything New York City was looking for in a Taty Castellanos replacement. The stats back that up.
After just two full seasons in the Big Apple, Martínez has risen in the NYCFC goalscoring charts to 4th Place on the all-time scoring list with 39 goals in 74 appearances in all competitions, behind David Villa (80 goals), Castellanos (59 goals), and Maxi Moralez (40 goals). His 2024 campaign cemented his status as the leader in the attack, but 2025 saw the Costa Rican enter NYC folklore as he scored a league-best 10 game-winning goals.
With 21 goals in 2025 in all competitions, Martínez had the fourth-best goalscoring season for a striker in New York City history, eclipsing his 18 goals from the previous campaign. He only trails Villa (24 goals in 2017 and 23 goals in 2016), and Castellanos (23 goals in 2021).
His underlying metrics made a jump as well.
Martínez drastically overperformed his expected goals in 2024, bagging 17 goals off an xG of 12.72. In 2025, his xG jumped to a whopping 22.51, and he nearly matched it despite stints away due to injury and international duty.
The Costa Rican ranked in the 94th percentile among MLS strikers in all shooting categories in 2025, including a 94th percentile ranking for league goals (19), 96th percentile ranking for shots (110), and 96th percentile ranking for shots on target (54).
All of these leaps in Martínez’s finishing have certainly been boosted by the striker playing nearly 1,000 more minutes in the league in 2025 than in the previous season, along with serving as Pascal Jansen’s number one option in attack week in and week out.
That said, Martínez made the most of his opportunities as the club’s most clutch player, including four matches with two or more goal contributions, the most in the New York City squad. And then there are the league-high 10 game-winning goals: That’s right, Alonso sealed more wins than Lionel Messi, Denis Bouanga, and Anders Dreyer, to name a few.
Mark Radigan
Good on and off the ball
Martínez’s impact on NYC’s season came from more than just his goalscoring prowess. Martínez’s dribbling, passing, and attacking positioning made him one of the most dangerous players in the MLS in 2025 and gave New York City a cutting edge in every match he featured.
Martínez’s 35 dribbles and 53% dribble success rate saw the striker ranked in the 94th and 81st percentiles, respectively, of all MLS strikers. These are up from eight dribbles (48th percentile) and 40% success rate (38th percentile) from 2024. An incredible jump that’s indicative of how threatening Martínez was leading the line this season.
Further, Martínez was one of the league’s most dangerous in the penalty area, recording 183 touches and 16 goals from inside the opposition’s box, along with drawing four penalties.
Even as a creator, Martínez took strides in 2025, creating 25 chances and completing 82% of his long balls in the league, up from nine chances created and just 66% of his long balls being accurate in 2024.
His off-the-ball presence was key to his success this campaign, with Martínez’s runs in behind making life exceptionally difficult for opposing defenders. Martínez filled the gaps between opposing defenders and used his incredible speed to beat defenders to long balls and bounce on loose passes to create goalscoring opportunities.
This was perfectly encapsulated by Martínez’s series-clinching strike in Game 3 of the First Round of the MLS Cup Playoffs, running nearly 60 yards to put the series to bed vs Charlotte on November 7.
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Martínez with the series clincher vs Charlotte FC | Courtesy MLS and Apple TV
Suffice it to say, New York City FC would be nowhere without Martínez. The former winger signed from the Belgian Second division has completely changed the fortunes of New York City since arriving in August 2023 — and will be a massive miss in 2026 as he recovers from an ACL tear.
Despite the Pigeons boasting quite a few forwards who lack consistency in front of goal, Alonso Martínez has carried the mantle of NYC’s talisman with poise and conviction, and if he can recover from this injury and bounce back in 2027, then Martinez will go down as the greatest striker in New York City FC history.
