New York City FC’s season ended sooner than hoped Saturday night in their 5-1 loss to Inter Miami.
The end of the 2025 campaign means the club has a number of questions to tackle before the 2026 season kicks off in a matter of months.
This fall’s surprise run through the postseason and the progress the club made in 2025 don’t hide the fact that there are still areas that need to be addressed for the club to grow in year two under Pascal Jansen.
“I think the season went well for us,” Tayvon Gray said just before hopping on the team bus out of Chase Stadium after the loss. “I think we had some bumps, obviously, but in the end, I thought we did well. A lot of new changes happened for us and we’re going in the right direction.”
But in order to continue moving forward, New York City FC’s front office has a few needs that need to be addressed.
Naming a new sporting director
By far the most important will be hiring the successor for former Sporting Director David Lee, who departed NYCFC to take over as president of soccer operations and general manager for Sporting Kansas City.
The club has operated since then without filling the role, but it has been quietly searching for its next sporting director.
NYCFC CEO Brad Sims had previously told The Post that they had whittled the candidate options to a list of finalists and that the “goal was to have someone named before the winter window started.”
Whoever that person ends up being will be put right into the fire with a number of roster decisions that need to be made and trying to pinpoint the areas of biggest need for the club.
Finding someone to fill the void left by Alonso Martínez
Watching Saturday’s loss, NYCFC missed having a player of Alonso Martínez’s goal-scoring caliber on the pitch, and they’ll need to replace that scoring prowess for 2026.
Martínez’s 17 goals in the regular season led the team, with Hannes Wolf’s 11 goals putting him second, leaving a big hole to fill for next year with Martínez out with a reported torn ACL.
The injury is expected to sideline him well into the middle of next season, though the club has not officially confirmed anything, and that makes bringing in a player to fill that gap paramount for any future success for New York City FC.
Once the sporting director role is filled, there should be more clarity about who the potential targets could be.
Re-signing Justin Haak, and other player decisions
When The Post spoke with Justin Haak a few weeks back, it sounded like there was some forward progress in getting the homegrown star signed to a new deal.
His importance on the defense has been quite clear this season and finding a way to keep him in blue and white should be a high priority this offseason.
He’s developed into one of the top defenders in MLS and his importance in helping NYCFC be a strong defensive team — despite the ugly loss Saturday — during the playoffs was hard to miss.
But Haak is one of 12 players whose contracts are coming to an end in some fashion or another and the club will need to make decisions about keeping others like Tayvon Gray and captain Thiago Martins, both of whom have team options for 2026.
“Of course, I want to stay,” Haak said. “My family loves it here. I like to play here. I like to play with the guys. Of course, I want to stay, but you never know. Our career, everything can happen so fast and I’m going to talk to the guys from the team and see what they want from me as well. What they expect from me as well and we’re going to talk.”
When asked what his future looked like, Gray simply responded, “At the moment, I’m not sure.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: nypost.com
