2023 Player Preview: Gabriel Segal

Gabriel Segal

Position: Center Forward
Age: 21
2022 Regionalliga West Season: 12 appearances, 6 starts, 633 minutes played
Key Stat: Scored 14 goals with 5 assists in his collegiate career at Stanford University

What went right in 2022:

What went right for Gabriel Segal last year? He embarked on his professional career as a footballer. After playing three years at Stanford University, where he made the Pac-12 second team in 2020, Segal signed with Bundesliga side FC Köln by way of a free transfer in 2022. The former DC United Academy product would go on to spend the 2022 season playing 12 games for their B squad, 1.FC Köln II, in the German fourth division, where he tallied one assist playing primarily as a center forward, with two appearances on the right wing.

What to improve:

Quite frankly, Segal will need to sharpen his talent and command more playing time than what he saw in 2022. Despite playing in the fourth division, Segal only made six starts and did not make much of an impact statistically. Tranfermarkt.us highlights that Segal only played 35% of the available minutes for his club in 2022, and only contributed to 4% of their goals scored. While NYCFC lost quite a bit of playmaking talent this winter, Segal will have to show himself much more capable that what he did in Germany in order to see regular playing time in New York City.

What to expect in 2023:

I think it is easy to say that the club sees something in Segal’s talent as a forward. Whether NYCFC feel that will be something that can be realized in the Senior Team or not remains to be seen. I would think it makes a lot of sense if we see Segal spend a considerable amount of time with NYCFC II, if not the whole season. There he can get the playing time he needs to hone his skills and actualize it into real games, whether that be as a winger or as a striker. All things being equal, Gabriel Segal can be another excellent development story for NYCFC who, in time, makes a profound impact on the first team. How much time it’ll take, however, remains to be seen.

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