New York City FC today confirmed the 35 players traveling with the team for the 2026 preseason and Mitja Ilenič isn't one of those players, with the club confirming that he's away "as the Club is negotiating a potential transfer for the player."
Ilenič, who turned 21 in December, was rumored to be a player in demand by multiple clubs in Europe, at least according to reports that emerged from his native Slovenian soccer media around the time last summer when he appeared to fall out of favor with NYCFC Head Coach Pascal Jansen.
The young attacking fullback appears to have never recovered his role with the team after a midsummer falling-out-of-favor that prompted Jansen to drop him from his squad entirely for a trip to face Orlando City on Matchday 22, with Jansen saying when asked about Ilenič after that match, "Mitja is a guy who has some things on his mind at the moment which keep him quite occupied. I just want to have guys on the roster that are fully committed to what we are trying to achieve at the moment, that's why he wasn't part of the roster today."
After that Orlando incident, Ilenič was an unused substitute in 13 of the 20 games New York City played across all competitions to close out the season. He also didn't get released for international call-ups late in his New York City FC tenure, with the Slovenia U-21 squad deprived of his services late in the MLS season despite calling Ilenič up for matches.
Andrew Leigh
Now as NYCFC begins to prepare for 2026, Ilenič is officially out of the team's plans. New York City reportedly paid €1 million to sign Ilenič from NK Domzale in Slovenia before the 2023 season. A report from Slovenia last summer claimed New York City was looking to sell Ilenič for €4 million and that teams including Pafos FC in Cyprus, Legia Warszawa and Lech Poznań in Poland, AC Sparta Praha in Czechia, and FC Zürich in Switzerland all held interest in the wing-back.
It's not at all clear who he'll join or how much the club will get in transfer fees for him now that his time with NYCFC is clearly at an end, but new Sporting Director Todd Dunivant will have an outgoing sale to arrange as one of his first moves on the job.
New faces in preseason
Ilenič won't be with NYCFC this preseason, but there are a handful of other new and intriguing players in camp. Five players without MLS contracts are on the traveling preseason roster – two past MLS SuperDraft picks, and three players from a mix of NYCFC II and the NYCFC Academy.
Interestingly, only one of the team's four SuperDraft picks from this most recent 2026 edition of the draft – defensive midfielder Kevin Pierre out of Georgia Southern University – is with the club for preseason. First Round selection and local product, Ransford Gyan, is not among the players participating in preseason, nor are midfielder Joey Mueller or defender Luca Nikolai.
A player NYCFC chose in the 2025 SuperDraft who chose to go back to college last season, forward Arnau Farnos of Orgeon State University, is now going to be involved in preseason training and might end up latching on with either NYCFC or NYCFC II despite the gap in time since he was drafted.
Players from last year's NYCFC II squad involved in preseason include goalkeeper Brennan Klein and midfielder Luka Sunjic, while the club also invited 17-year-old Jamaican-American fullback Kieran Smith to preseason straight from the NYCFC Academy. Smith has a similar trajectory to another Jamaican-American member of the NYCFC squad: Seymour Reid, as both players joined NYCFC from the Cedar Stars Academy in New Jersey.
Other ins and outs
Talles Magno is officially "in" for preseason, at least as far this roster goes. The Brazilian Designated Player last played for NYCFC on July 28, 2024, so it would be a drastic about-face if he goes back to being a contributor in MLS after going over 500 days between matches while out on loan in Brazil with Corinthians.
Hudson River Blue Staff
All but one of the club's remaining Homegrown player signings are also on the preseason roster, though in a slightly odd twist, 17-year-old Chilean-American forward Zidane Yañez "will not travel with the team" during preseason, according to the club's official release. Yañez made only five appearances with NYCFC II in MLS Next Pro last season, though he did feature prominently for Chile at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, appearing in all three of the country's matches at the tournament and scoring a goal against Canada.
Below, you can read through the entirety of the NYCFC traveling roster for preseason, and if you need a reminder of the full schedule of events for NYCFC's 2026 preseason, you can read more about that here.
Goalkeepers (5): Matt Freese, Brennan Klein^, Mac Learned, Greg Ranjitsingh, Tomás Romero
Defenders (10): Kamran Acito, Drew Baiera, Nicholas Cavallo, Tayvon Gray, Raul Gustavo, Thiago Martins, Max Murray, Kevin O'Toole, Kieran Smith^, Strahinja Tanasijević
Midfielders (13): Jacob Arroyave, Máximo Carrizo, Cooper Flax, Nicolás Fernández Mercau, Peter Molinari, Maxi Moralez, Aiden O'Neill, Keaton Parks, Andrés Perea, Kevin Pierre*, Jonny Shore, Luka Sunjic^, Hannes Wolf
Forwards (7): Julián Fernández, Arnau Farnos*, Malachi Jones, Talles Magno, Alonso Martínez, Agustín Ojeda, Seymour Reid
^ NYCFC Academy/NYCFC II Player
*MLS SuperDraft Selection
