A slew of New York City FC transfer news has ensured our very own Andrew Leigh, the man responsible for updating the Hudson River Blue Transfer Tracker, had a very busy week. For an NYCFC fanbase that’s been desperate for transfer activity, the flurry of storylines was welcomed amidst the blizzard.
Early last week, NYCFC opened its doors to the media for the first time ahead of the 2026 campaign, with new Sporting Director Todd Dunivant and Head Coach Pascal Jansen both hinting at new signings to replace lost talent from last season. Highlighted areas of need included central defense and holding midfield, to backfill the departed Justin Haak, and center forward, to cover for Alonso Martínez as he rehabs his ACL injury.
By Sunday evening, Dunivant appeared to have most of that sorted out.
It started on Thursday, when rumors trickled out that Jovan Mijatović, who failed to make an impact in New York after his $10 million transfer in 2024, might be swapping one loan move for another, traveling from OH Leuven in Belgium to Eintracht Braunschweig in Germany — that news was made official just this morning. It was the sort of almost newsworthy transfer update that NYCFC fans had grown used to choking down this time of year, with little else to talk about.
But by Friday, it was all kicking off. Reports out of ESPN Australia confirmed that Kai Trewin would be joining NYCFC from their City Football Group sister club, Melbourne City FC. Then, on Sunday morning, reports out of Sky Sports Germany claimed that center forward Moussa Sylla would be joining as a Designated Player from German giants Schalke 04, currently in 2. Bundesliga. By that same evening, Tom Bogert confirmed that NYCFC’s own Julián Fernández would be loaned to Argentinian side Rosario Central with an option to buy.
Instead of spending the new cycle ruminating on where Mijatović might land, fans finally had some proper transfer stories to hyper-fixate on: A new DP striker, a versatile defensive addition, and the surprising exit of a regular contributor.
Hudson River Blue Staff
Signs of speedier signings
For a club that’s been frustratingly slow in the market in recent years, this change of pace is notable. The former sporting director, David Lee, had a habit of building the plane as he flew it, often waiting until the summer window, more than halfway through the MLS season, to make key upgrades to the squad.
Even the winter signings had a way of feeling late, most often arriving at the very end of the window when the season had already begun. (See: Aiden O’Neill’s arrival on April 25, 2025, right before Matchday 10.) This made for awkward integrations for new arrivals without proper preseasons, and forced NYCFC to play opening games shorthanded.
Lee, inarguably, created some good MLS teams — and left for Sporting Kansas City with an MLS Cup in his suitcase to prove it. But the general lack of urgency in his squad-building made for some unnecessarily difficult seasons, with one rebuild year phasing into the next as big-money talent arrived and departed, seeming directionless from season to season.
Dunivant, who just arrived from Sacramento Republic FC, is already showing signs of moving more quickly than his predecessor. This past weekend serves, at least anecdotally, as evidence that it’s the club’s Sporting Director, and not CFG ownership, who controls the pace of how NYCFC operates in the global transfer market — something cast into doubt towards the end of Lee’s tenure.
As a result, despite the loss of Haak and critical injuries to Martínez and Andrés Perea, NYCFC’s roster feels largely built out with the season opener still weeks away. Lee is due plenty of credit for departing with the roster in a good place, but Dunivant’s ability to hit the ground running ensures that NYCFC can start the season as the contenders they slowly grew to become over the course of last year.
Andrew Leigh
Dunivant’s DP dance
While Dunivant’s quick business is noteworthy, it’s not the main story here. When your club reportedly signs a Designated Player who’s a No 9, that’ll always be the headline. So, welcome to the limelight, Moussa Sylla.
DP center-forwards are common across Major League Soccer, but NYCFC has only used a DP slot on a striker once in their history: On their first-ever signing, David Villa. More often than not, the club has used these precious slots on attacking midfielders and wingers like Maxi Moralez, Jesús Medina, Alexandru Mitriță, Talles Magno, Santiago Rodríguez, and, most recently, Nico Fernández Mercau. This makes the signing of Sylla, a goal-scoring center forward at heart, all the more intriguing.
Dunivant flashed some savvy chops to land Sylla while keeping NYCFC in compliance with MLS roster rules. Between Fernández Mercau, Thiago Martins, and Talles Magno (now back from loan), the club already had its three DP slots filled before Sylla’s signing.
Per Tom Bogert’s reporting, NYCFC navigated this by buying down Thiago Martin’s contract using allocation money, meaning NYCFC’s club captain will now occupy a standard senior roster slot instead of the valuable DP slot he’s held since 2022. It’s an excellent use of the club’s Targeted Allocation Money, allowing Sylla to sign as a DP without the club having to offload any of its existing high-earning talent.
The choice to use a DP slot on Sylla is also notable, considering Martínez, NYCFC’s main goal threat and third-highest scorer in club history, will be returning from injury later this season if his rehab goes to plan.
After Martínez scored 18 goals in 2024 and 21 goals in 2025, it’s hard to imagine the Costa Rican being left on the bench once he’s returned to full fitness. Simultaneously, Dunivant wouldn’t have signed a DP forward if he thought Sylla would be sitting on the bench upon Martínez’s return. Unless either player is ultimately sold, this suggests that Dunivant and Jansen see a world where the two could play together, either in a two-striker system or with one of Sylla or Martínez playing on the wing.
Between the weight of the DP slot he’ll occupy and the competition for playing time he’ll one day face, Sylla has his work cut out for him. Since he profiles more as a raw scoring threat than an all-rounder, he’ll see his success measured by output even more so than his DP predecessors. And, as a 26-year-old, this is a signing for immediate production, not future profit.
All of this makes Sylla’s signing a bold one, and puts a large portion of Dunivant’s fan capital on the line right off the bat.
Andrew Leigh
What Sylla tells us about club identity
NYCFC’s reported $8 million-plus signing of Sylla marks an interesting trend amongst the club’s big-money purchases, becoming the second consecutive DP signing from a European second division after the acquisition of Fernández Mercau last summer.
Nico joined for an undisclosed fee north of $8 million from Elche CF, a club that recently gained promotion from La Liga 2 to La Liga. Similarly, Sylla will be joining from 2. Bundesliga, with his former club FC Schalke 04 sitting top of the table with the German top flight in their sights.
Even when dropping big money on DPs, this trend would suggest that CFG is continuing its search for undervalued targets when assembling NYCFC’s roster, rather than spending on more universally sought-after, globally recognized talent. Nico’s impressive performances at the business end of last season prove that there’s real quality to be found in this bracket of player, but the pattern removes NYCFC from the “big name” movement that clubs like Inter Miami CF and LAFC have championed in recent years. In its current form, New York City is not a club that will sign a Son Heung-min or a Thomas Müller.
Oliver Strand
Amongst the club’s day-one fans, there’s long been a suggestion that NYCFC could return to its early days of flashy signings upon the opening of Etihad Park in 2027. Just as, in 2015, it used Villa, Andrea Pirlo, and Frank Lampard for club marketing as much as on-field production, fans have speculated that NYCFC might go big on a world-renowned signing to generate buzz around their new $780 million home in Queens.
Now, just one year out from the stadium opening, the talk of superstar signings is starting to feel more like wishful thinking than expectation.
Still leveraging CFG’s network
If Dunivant’s general speed of business was refreshing, and his signing of Sylla was bold, his pickup of Trewin would best be described as shrewd.
Last year, NYCFC fumbled Justin Haak’s contract situation — plain and simple. Haak had grown from a long-time academy standout into a consistent and versatile contributor, first under Nick Cushing in 2024, then more profoundly under Jansen in 2025. Despite his growing role, his contract was allowed to run down. As the months ticked away, it became clear that Lee either didn’t rate the Brooklyn native, or thought he could get him to sign below the price at which he was ultimately valued in the MLS market.
After feeling lowballed by Lee, Haak departed for LA Galaxy before Dunivant was fully onboarded as the new Sporting Director, leaving Jansen without his first-choice left-center-back and without a valuable rotational option in midfield. The fact that two positions had been thinned out by a single departure, one that didn’t garner any incoming transfer fee, could’ve proved a real challenge for Dunivant.
Luckily for him, someone else under CFG’s planet-sized roof was already fulfilling a similar role out in Melbourne. Trewin, the recently-capped Australian international, played both as a holding midfielder and center-back for Melbourne City FC, allowing Jansen to plug both holes vacated by the versatile Haak’s departure with a single signing – something that was far from a guarantee considering the rarity of such players.
While the exact fee hasn’t been disclosed (as it seldom is amongst inter-CFG transfers), it seems to be on the bargain side, with clubs under the CFG umbrella unlikely to jack up prices for one another, and with the only benchmark to work off of being ESPN Australia’s vague assertion that the deal was worth “more than a seven-figure sum” in Australian Dollars, setting the floor of the fee at just $685,000.
When Dunivant was appointed, there was a degree of surprise that NYCFC’s new Sporting Director hadn’t come from within CFG. There were then questions about how Dunivant, who hardly gives “CFG corporate suit” energy as a five-time MLS Cup winner and USL front-office veteran, would learn to navigate the multi-national footballing conglomerate.
The fact that Dunivant’s first significant signing directly utilized CFG’s multi-club model tells us either that he’s settling in just fine, or that this was really more of a CFG transfer than it was a Dunivant one.
We’ll likely never know, but considering NYCFC swiftly solved their transfer predicament, who cares?
Julián’s departure remains familiar
While much of Dunivant’s early work has felt novel, he dipped into a core calling card of his predecessor with the loaning out of Julián Fernández. The Argentine winger arrived for a reported $5 million fee in 2023, and despite flashes of brilliance, he hasn’t lived up to his price tag.
To remedy this, Dunivant opted for the good ol’ “loan with an option to buy” tactic that we’ve seen with other young NYCFC signings that hadn’t quite met expectations. Core examples of this would include the aforementioned Mijatović situation, Talles Magno’s recently-ended spell at Corinthians, Thiago Andrade’s 2023 move to Athletico Paranaense, and Nicolas Acevedo’s multi-year loan to Esporte Clube Bahia, a fellow CFG club.
NYCFC has also pulled this with players in the opposite situation, those who were “too good” for the club to keep around, and could potentially garner larger transfer fees while playing in European leagues. Taty Castellanos and James Sands are pillars of this approach.
This isn’t even Dunivant’s first time using this strategy, despite being in the job for just a little more than four weeks. The sporting director sent out right-back Mitja Ilenič on loan to Polish side Raków Częstochowa back on January 14th, also with an option to buy.
Between the signing of Sylla, Talles Magno’s return from loan, and the impending return of Malachi Jones from injury, a loan away for Fernández feels justifiable considering the club’s newfound attacking depth. Ilenič was firmly second fiddle to Tayvon Gray at right back, suggesting more minutes and a change of scenery could be beneficial.
So, the loans of Fernández and Ilenič as individuals aren’t necessarily the story here, but rather, that Dunivnat is solving his roster problems in the same ways as Lee: If you don’t know what to do with the player, loan them out and see if you can raise their transfer value elsewhere.
Hudson River Blue Staff
“This past weekend serves, at least anecdotally, as evidence that it’s the club’s Sporting Director, and not CFG ownership, who controls the pace of how NYCFC operates in the global transfer market — something cast into doubt towards the end of Lee’s tenure.”This has been the question in my mind for years: is the problem Lee’s paralysis by analysis, or is the issue in Manchester?Whatever was the case during Lee’s tenure (and he deserves credit just as much as he deserves criticism), I think it’s fair to say the paralysis by analysis problem is now in the past.
Appointing Dunivant didn’t feel like a fit with the CFG profile at first. But if this is a signal or affirmation of NYCFC’s overall team-building direction, I’m liking it. Alongside some positive changes since Jansen joined, there’s a sense of practicality over what just sounds posh in the papers. As HRB pointed out, having sufficient transfers in and out during the offseason is something we haven’t really seen since the club’s inception—and that’s a hugely positive sign.
Personally I approve of the continued transfer strategy of finding undervalued proven players and a high volume of youth talent. The lack of a global player such as Müller or Son who has already played their best football feels like the right decision for where the mls is going. Dunivant seems like he is well equipped for this whereas Lee tried but was often lethargic in the transfer window and never used the winter window to it’s full extent.