The Major League Soccer summer transfer window is now closed. Clubs can still announce deals, but those deals had to be completed and with the league notified by 1:00 am ET on the morning of August 22.
It was a transformative window of activity for a number of MLS teams and for the league at large.
LAFC set a new MLS record by dropping a $26.5 million transfer fee to bring Son Heung-min over from Tottenham Hotspur FC in England's Premier League, while two World Cup winners in Rodrigo De Paul and Thomas Müller made the move to Inter Miami CF and Vancouver Whitecaps FC, respectively.
The MLS transfer blockbusters were popping up left and right, even down to the very last minutes of Deadline Day with Colorado Rapids arranging a stunning $7 million transfer to bring Paxten Aaronson over from Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany's Bundesliga.
John Baney
Teams around the league made some very big summer moves, and New York City FC counts as one of those teams. Their Nico Fernández Mercau splash might not be as large as the ones caused by Son or Müller, but it still cost the club a transfer fee reportedly above $8 million to bring in a new attacking Designated Player.
NYCFC also pulled a switch at left-footed center-back, saying goodbye to Birk Risa while saying hello to Raul Gustavo. The club parted with Mounsef Bakrar, too, selling the striker to Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia, a return to the league Bakrar left in 2023 to join NYCFC.
It was a window of some activity for New York City FC, but it also wasn't too different from your normal New York City FC summer transfer window, or what we've come to know as "normal" based on how the club operates under the leadership of Sporting Director David Lee.
Will the moves made by Lee to fortify the 2025 New York City squad be enough to get them where they want to be, namely, with decent seeding in the MLS Cup Playoffs? Let's try to sum up some feelings on what New York City FC did during this summer transfer season.
The same, but new
Two new players signed this summer is right on trend for how New York City have tended to supplement their rosters during midseason shopping season. The summer of 2023, when six new players arrived to try to save Nick Cushing's flailing squad, was a major outlier.
David Lee prefers to do his main roster renovations in the winter, and the summer then only includes one or two, or sometimes zero, new additions.
New York City FC | Signings by Transfer Window
| Year | Winter | Summer | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
| 2024 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
| 2023 | 8 | 6 | 14 |
| 2022 | 7 | 1 | 8 |
| 2021 | 9 | 1 | 10 |
| 2020 | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2019 | 8 | 2 | 10 |
| 2018 | 11 | 2 | 13 |
| 2017 | 12 | 2 | 14 |
| 2016 | 10 | 1 | 11 |
| 2015 | — | 3 | 3 |
| AVG | 8.5 | 1.82 | 10.2 |
This was a pretty standard summer transfer window for New York City FC as it pertains to incomings. They handed out that sizable fee to Elche CF in Spain to get Nico Fernández Mercau, but then only brought in one additional player in Raul Gustavo, and only for a fee that could reportedly rise to $1.5 million.
It's new players, including a new DP, and they seem likely to make a difference for NYCFC over the remainder of this season and, if they make it, during the postseason. Yet it's also a familiar approach to the summer, and not what it seemed like David Lee had in mind when he said he and NYCFC would be "pretty active" in the transfer window back in April.
Enhancements or replacements?
The signings of Fernández Mercau and Raul Gustavo might be enough to help NYCFC achieve playoff qualification and it might even be enough to help them avoid landing in the dreaded single-elimination Wild Card Round, so finishing above 8th or 9th Place in the Eastern Conference.
The two signings, though, are made to fill glaring holes created on the NYCFC roster by other players departing during the 2025 season – Santi Rodríguez on February 22 and Birk Risa on July 14. The two new players might end up being improvements on their predecessors, but their signings can be viewed as bringing the squad back to status quo.
Stopping at just these two signings during the summer window is consistent with how NYCFC usually rolls, but it also doesn't do enough to help Pascal Jansen in the short-term. With Mounsef Bakrar also departing this window, the depth available to Jansen off the bench got younger and less experienced. With the window shut and no other option to play as a No 9 joining, 17-year-old Homegrown striker Seymour Reid graduates early and is now the de facto backup striker behind Alonso Martínez.
Really what this transfer window's limited movement underscored is that NYCFC will ride or die with its best possible Starting XI, depth be damned. Jansen never had Santi Rodríguez available and it took until late July for Fernández Mercau to arrive as a new option to fill the role of direct, high-effort, versatile attacking midfielder. Perhaps adding the type of player that Fernández Mercau is capable of being is enough of an upgrade to cancel out any concerns about the team's depth, but it's also easy to wonder if another one or two additions would have set this NYCFC squad up for an even stronger finish to 2025.
Where this leaves NYCFC
In early April, Hudson River Blue publisher Oliver Strand detailed how much roster flexibility New York City FC enjoyed – in terms of open roster slots and in terms of available allocation money.
The club filled its vacated Designated Player slot with Fernández Mercau, though still has an opening for a potential new U22 Initiative signing – or with an opening to sign a third Designated Player, which would require a change to the club's chosen roster construction model.
While Brad Sims alluded to the club's interest in adding another DP while holding court with traveling supporters during a recent NYCFC road match, that didn't happen this summer transfer window, but it could always still happen in the offseason. Similarly, more departures could loom in that offseason, perhaps in the form of someone like Mitja Ilenič, who was rumored to have at least five teams from Europe interested in signing him this summer, but who stayed put.
Hudson River Blue Staff
The offseason, rapidly approaching with only single-digit MLS matches left on the schedule, should be an interesting one for New York City's roster building. It's the final guaranteed year under contract for a vital collection of players, and with contract option decisions to be made on a number of other important members of the squad. That group includes the likes of Thiago Martins, Maxi Moralez, Justin Haak, Kevin O'Toole, Andrés Perea, and Tayvon Gray – though only Moralez and Haak of that group are set to be entirely out of contract come season's end.
Raul Gustavo might not arrive and be ready to debut until season's end is one or two games closer and the calendar has flipped to September, but his arrival could protect against the departure of a player like Haak who, according to a report from Trey Fillmore of the Blue Balls podcast, has already rebuffed a contract extension offer from NYCFC.
The 2025 roster is stronger as the summer transfer window closes, mainly thanks to the addition and quick integration of Fernández Mercau. New York City still feels one or two players short of being serious contenders this season, especially while teams around them in the Eastern Conference also made significant moves to improve. I'm thinking of Columbus Crew adding Palestinian striker Wessam Abou Ali, or Chicago Fire FC picking up midfielder André Franco from FC Porto plus defenders Joel Waterman and Viktor Radojević.
NYCFC kept itself in decent position to make the postseason again in 2025, and retains flexibility heading into 2026, their final season before the big one in 2027 when Etihad Park opens and expectations for the club take a new-stadium-sized step up.
Stopping at just the two additions while parting with an ineffective yet experienced backup striker don't feel like moves made by a team going all-out to push for MLS Cup this season, but instead one happy to plug along as a dark horse playoff contender with the potential to pull off an upset or two, but with long odds to actually lift the trophy.
John Baney
