Julián Fernández earns spot on MLS 22 Under 22 list

Julián Fernández came in ranked 16th on this year's MLS 22 Under 22 list, which the league revealed in full earlier today.

The 21-year-old New York City FC forward is the club's only representative on the annual ranking of the best players in Major League Soccer under age-22, as voted on by "an expert panel of select MLS staff, MLS Season Pass talent and Club technical staff."

Fernández earns the honor during a season in which he's scored three goals and added four assists in 31 MLS appearances, a career-best goals+assists number established while making the most appearances in a season to date in his career.

Philadelphia Union, just-clinched winners of the 2025 Supporters' Shield, are the best-represented club on this year's 22U22 with three players selected, and with their teen phenom Cavan Sullivan finishing just outside the top-22, on the bubble at No. 25.

Fernández stands out a bit from the rest of this year's 22U22 crowd because he's not a Homegrown player, one of eight members of the list to be acquired by their MLS team via some other mechanism.

In Julián's case, it was just-departed NYCFC Sporting Director David Lee agreeing to pay a reported $5 million transfer fee to Velez Sarsfield in Argentina to bring him to MLS in July 2023.

The winger from Buenos Aires has yet to live up to the decent-sized expectations that accompanied his arrival. He's been in and out of the Starting XI under two different New York City Head Coaches, though late in this 2025 season, has settled into a decently productive role coming on as a second-half substitute for Pascal Jansen. All-told, Fernández has seven goals and seven assists in 71 appearances in all competitions for NYCFC.

That Fernández landed at No 16 makes this seven straight years in which NYCFC has had a player included in the 22 Under 22 list.

Last year, Homegrown fullback Christian McFarlane was at No 20 on the list, while Talles Magno, Thiago Andrade, James Sands, and Taty Castellanos all repped NYCFC on the 22U22 during this seven-year stretch of appearances for the club.

New York City FC | 22 Under 22

* It was "24 Under 24" until 2018

It's fair to wonder if Agustín Ojeda had as much of a case for inclusion as Fernández, after all, Ojeda has six assists in MLS this year, after scoring three goals last season in his first year in MLS. You wonder if a player like Jonathan Shore might have had an outside shout for inclusion near the bottom of the top-22, as well, given he made 27 appearances in MLS this season and more than held his own as a defensive midfielder while being 17-turning-18-years-old.

The voting's done and all else is conjecture, and Fernández officially becomes the 10th player in NYCFC's history to be ranked among the top young talents in MLS. Maybe that banger of a match-winning goal against Columbus a few weeks back swayed the voters and put Julián over the top.