Luighi officially joined New York City FC from SE Palmeiras today on loan through the end of 2026, with the club holding an option — reportedly valued at $6 million — to buy the young Brazilian outright at the conclusion of his loan.
Full name Luighi Hanri Sousa Santos, the 20-year-old forward's midseason arrival indicates a departure for New York City FC here in its first year operating under the direction of sporting director Todd Dunivant.
This is the first player signed by NYCFC under Major League Soccer's U22 Initiative since the 2024 season, when ex-sporting director David Lee was still in charge. It's also the first time NYCFC hasn't outright purchased a U22 player, which they did with each of their five previous U22 Initiative signings — signings that had decidedly mixed experiences while rostered by New York City FC.
Between 2022 and 2024, New York City spent a combined $26.6 million to sign their first five U22 players — Gabriel Pereira ($5.5M), Mounsef Bakrar ($2M), Julián Fernández ($5M), Agustín Ojeda ($5.5M), and Jovan Mijatović ($8.6M).
Only Pereira and Bakrar yielded the club transfer fees while leaving the NYCFC roster, and only the sale of Pereira was a profitable one, with New York City reportedly receiving over $10 million to send the Brazilian winger to Al-Rayyan in Qatar. Bakrar left last summer to return to Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb, but only for a €1 million transfer fee, essentially a wash with what NYCFC paid to acquire him from NK Istra in the summer of 2023.
In signing Luighi, Todd Dunivant taps back into the U22 market, but does so in a much more wait-and-see manner than his predecessor, reportedly only guaranteed to spend a $300,000 loan fee to bring Luighi in for the remainder of the 2026 season.
That's a very different scenario than outright spending $6 million to acquire Luighi on the back of his early-career work with Palmeiras, where he made 45 appearances across all competitions and scored five goals since making his professional debut as a teenager.
The club's history with U22 Initiative signings has been more negative than positive to date, with no signings made via this acquisition mechanism following expensive missteps made between 2023 and 2024. Luighi's arrival might be a first sign of changes to the way the team utilizes the U22 Initiative, and might indicate lessons have been learned from NYCFC's past attempts to dip into the international youth marketplace.
