Starts: 34
Minutes: 2,897
Age: 26
Key Stat: 17 goal contributions, second in the New York City squad
Hannes Wolf recorded the highest league goal contribution tally of his career in 2025, scoring seven goals and adding 11 assists. Yet he failed to reach his total potential for a second straight campaign.
The former Austria youth international was a key fixture in the New York City FC squad for Head Coach Pascal Jansen for the majority of 2025, and with good reason. Wolf’s nine goals and four assists before the start of the Leagues Cup made the player an instrumental part of New York City’s excellent mid-summer hot streak away from home.
Yet, as fans saw during his first full campaign in the Big Apple in 2024, Wolf went cold come August.
With just two goals and two assists from the end of July through to the end of the playoff run on November 29th, the NYCFC’s second-best scorer became a ghost when his squad could have used his talents the most.
Slow start, summer fling, nosedive
Wolf is one of the top three highest-paid players in the New York City squad, and he can play like it. However, his inconsistency brings his stock down.
Wolf appeared in all 38 MLS matches this year, including the postseason, making 34 starts. In all, the Austrian finished 2025 with 11 goals and six assists, all from league play. But to understand the full scope of Wolf’s season, you must break his campaign down into three phases: The slow start, the summer fling, and the nosedive.
From Opening Day on February 22 (a 2-2 draw vs Inter Miami), to New York City’s first Hudson River Derby win of the year on May 17, Wolf recorded just four goal involvements in 15 matches.
The summer, however, is where Wolf hit his stride. From May 25 to July 25, Wolf was scalding-hot, bagging six goals and three assists in nine matches. Unplayable over the course of those two months, Wolf’s heroics included three matches with two or more goal contributions.
The Pigeons were a formidable force across this period as well, putting up a record of 5W-1D-3L. With emphatic wins over Chicago Fire (3-1) and Atlanta United (4-0) – plus a hard-fought draw at Nashville SC (2-2), where Wolf scored a brace – this stretch saw New York City shoot up the Eastern Conference table, setting the stage for the Top 4 push in the fall.
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Wolf with a late equalizer for his brace away vs Nashville in May | Courtesy MLS and Apple TV
And though the team’s form continued through to the end of the season and into the playoffs, Wolf’s play took a nosedive. From July 29 to November 29, Wolf recorded just two goals and two assists over the 17 games played in that five-month stretch. This dry spell featured seven straight matches without a goal contribution to close out the regular season.
The Austrian did record an assist during New York City’s blockbuster 3-1 road win in Game 3 of the MLS Playoff first round series vs Charlotte FC. But that came in the 90’+11, after the match had already been put to bed.
Outside of that one shining moment late in the first round, Wolf was a non-factor during the run to the Eastern Conference Final.
Matthew Mangam
Still impactful on his day
Don’t let the goal droughts fool you: There is a more than capable player at Jansen’s disposal in Hannes Wolf. The number of starts from the Austrian speaks for itself, as do the underlying metrics.
Wolf is not a prolific dribbler, that much is certain: he finished in just the 26th percentile of all MLS wingers, with 37% completed. But his goal contributions helped set the standard at his position. Wolf’s 11 goals put him in the 91st percentile of all wingers, while his six assists place him in the 83rd percentile. The Austrian’s 11 assists matched his total from 2024, but improved upon his league goals from the previous campaign, jumping from five to seven.
Though his goalscoring made up for some of his flaws, Wolf did see a significant drop in the number of chances created and successful dribbles. The attacker went from 70 chances created and 57 successful dribbles in 2024 to 58 and 37, respectively, in 2025. Both totals cleared the 75th percentile of all MLS wingers, but the decline in 2025 represents a step back in the Austrian’s creativity on the ball.
Two-way threat
Still, Wolf’s defensive metrics set him apart from his peers. To put it another way, Wolf was the best defending winger in the MLS in 2025.
Wolf set the standard for wingers in the league when it came to tackles (60), interceptions (24), and recoveries (156). He led all MLS wingers in tackles, while finishing in the 98th percentile for interceptions and 96th percentile for recoveries.
This defensive prowess allowed Jansen to deputize Wolf as a makeshift wingback on multiple occasions, allowing for tactical versatility from one game to another. Defense has always been a factor in Wolf’s multinational career, and his two-way threat could force other teams to change their gameplans when facing the Pigeons on any given game week.
Mark Radigan
Does it make up for his dramatic changes in form? That’s up for debate. What isn’t, however, is Wolf’s impact on New York City’s season in 2025. Despite the long stretches where the Austrian posed little threat in attack, Wolf’s 17 goal contributions compare favorably with the 18 logged by Santiago RodrĂguez in 2024, when the Designated Player was the engine of the NYCFC attack.
One can wonder what heights the Pigeons may have reached this season if Wolf hadn’t gone cold after August, but this was another big step up for a winger who dealt with serious injuries throughout his career, but who now played two full seasons for New York City.
Fans will have every right to be optimistic for 2026, but with Alonso MartĂnez set to miss major minutes with an ACL tear, the pressure will be on Wolf to pick up the slack if New York City wants to lift MLS Cup next December.
