Age: 52
Key Stat: Win percentage of 48.8% in 2025, which is the second-best win rate of any NYCFC manager in the club's history (Ronny Deila, 48.9%)
Pascal Jansen was the best new addition New York City FC made in 2025 and in just one season proved to be one of the top coaches in all of Major League Soccer.
It might seem like an overstatement considering New York City finished fifth in the Eastern Conference and ninth in the Supporters' Shield table, but each of those finishes represented improvements on the 2024 season.
Jansen deserves praise for the way he did it, piecing together the season while operating with an at-times threadbare roster. He operated without an attacking Designated Player on the roster until late July and had to regularly shuffle his central midfield while Andrés Perea and Keaton Parks missed time through injury, yet he always seemed to find the right mix of personnel and made the right tactical tweaks to get the results New York City needed.
By the end of the season, once new signings were in and integrated, New York City under Jansen looked capable of making a trophy run, and they almost pulled it off.
The talk of instilling a "bulletproof mindset" that arrived with Jansen at the start of the 2025 season proved to be legit, as New York City became nearly invincible on the road late in the season and reached the Eastern Conference Final. While they fell short of the ultimate prize, Jansen consistently proved he was the right person to be at the helm of New York City FC in the here and now.
Making the best of a dicey roster situation
New York City FC couldn't turn down the offer to sell Santiago Rodriguez to Botafogo, but he left a massive hole in the attack in the early going. James Sands had done his time back in MLS and deserved a move to FC St. Pauli in the German Bundesliga, so the midfield had to make it work without its previous defensive anchor.
