Every NYCFC Designated Player, ranked
Every NYCFC Designated Player, ranked: Nothing gets MLS supporters more giddy than the addition of a new Designated Player to their team. It’s true that the “Designated Player” concept itself is an odd quirk of the league’s restrictive roster guidelines. However, when a new DP is revealed, hope endures. It’s easy to imagine that these highly-paid stars of the sport will arrive prepared to impose their will on this league, whether your team is signing an up-and-coming new talent or an experienced standout from somewhere else.
There have been a few major Designated Player additions throughout the summer transfer window. Columbus Crew paid $10 million to acquire Colombian striker Cucho Hernandez from recently relegated Watford; Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi joined Toronto FC as Designated Players to usher in the Azzurri Era; and new DC United manager and former Designated Player Wayne Rooney acquired FC Schalke 04 midfielder Victor Pálsson as his first DP acquisition.
Though it doesn’t seem likely that New York City FC will acquire a new Designated Player anytime soon, it’s also still early for their Brazilian duo of Thiago Martins and Talles Magno. Let’s instead take a deeper look at all the players who have had the well-paid “designation” since NYCFC first started operations because there isn’t a new big signing to replace the departing Taty Castellanos for us to analyze.
It’s vital to keep in mind how much the club’s strategy for employing these roster slots has changed since its initial days while attempting to rank NYCFC’s DPs throughout time. The team’s Designated Players initially appeared to be there to garner attention, aid in ticket and merchandising sales, but didn’t seem to provide much of a return on investment on the field. Since then, the dynamic has changed, with less famous players producing substantially more on the field.
Ranking makes an effort to take into consideration all effects of the team’s Designated Player acquisitions. 5 DPs have been on the pitch at Yankee Soccer Stadium, which is actually the same amount of venues that NYCFC has called “home” throughout its history. How do those players compare?
Alexandru Mitriţă
The decision by NYCFC to pay an alleged $8.5 million transfer fee to sign the Romanian striker has always left me scratching my head. Mitriță was the first DP hired after David Villa left, but he didn’t have a very impressive resume of prior greatness. In 2019, he had some promising moments, but after that, things only got worse. He lost Ronny Deila’s favor and joined the loan merry-go-round, which he is still riding on now.
Anthony Pirlo
Pirlo would be in the top slot if I were to base my rating just on the buzz a signing created and the star power of the players. He is a sports legend and attracted a lot of interest from fans outside of Major League Soccer when he came. But wow, when he actually began playing, he ignored it. The physical, frantic, and fast-paced style of the game was not a suitable match for The Maestro in his twilight, despite the fact that he could still pick out passes like few others.
Frank Lampard
Consider how the NYCFC season has gotten started to the very worst conceivable start: Despite being named the team’s second-ever DP in 2014, Lampard chose to stay at Manchester City rather than travel to Los Angeles to begin his new MLS team’s first season. Lamps spent a lot of time rehabilitating from the numerous muscular issues you’d anticipate afflicting a player in his mid-30s after he finally made it to New York. He edges over Pirlo in this ranking because he still showed his goal-scoring prowess when he did get onto the field. He scored the club’s first-ever hat trick and helped the 2016 squad make a significant improvement by scoring 12 goals in 15 starts.
Jess Medina
Possibly the most divisive player NYCFC has ever fielded. Medina, the club’s first-ever “Young Designated Player,” was NYCFC’s first effort to sign the “new” definition of a valuable DP: a young prospect from South America who may develop into a star in Major League Soccer. Considering how up and down Medina’s reign was, that flowering most certainly did not occur.
Anthony Martins
The Brazilian center-back, who was the first defender the organization acquired as a Designated Player, has significantly improved since his early struggles with NYCFC. Since he now makes the highest pay at the team, it’s critical that he anchors a NYCFC defense that has allowed the second-fewest goals in MLS this season.