MLS 22 Under 22 and New York City FC's missing generation

This is the first year since 2018 that New York City FC did not have any players included on the MLS 22 Under 22 ranking, and only the second season in the club's history in which it has not placed someone on the annual list of the top young players in Major League Soccer.

Cavan Sullivan of Philadelphia Union topped the 2026 22 Under 22, followed by a pair of Red Bull New York products from New York City: striker Julian Hall at No 2, and midfielder Adri Mehmeti at No 3. The Red Bulls had three players (midfielder Ronald Donkor was No 12), as did the Union, with defenders Neil Pierre (No 7) and Frankie Westfield (No 11) joining Sullivan. Those were the two best-represented clubs on the 22 Under 22 this year, and they happen to be New York City FC's two closest geographic MLS rivals for young talent.

Those two teams have deployed the "Play your kids" strategy with decent effect in MLS this season, but more importantly, they've continued to have academies bring players along and have them ready for MLS level and beyond, year after year. New York City FC has not gotten a similar impact in MLS from players age-eligible for 22 Under 22 consideration, and its academy hasn't borne as much fruit lately.

Jonathan Shore, 19 and out of the academy, has only gotten 25.3% of the available MLS minutes this season, slightly ahead of Luighi, 20 and a loanee from abroad, at 24%, and those are the two age-eligible players to see the highest share of NYCFC's MLS minutes this year. Neither did enough to impress the voting bloc that decides the 22 Under 22, "an expert panel of MLS coaches, general managers, sporting directors, MLS on Apple TV talent, and select media."

Luighi and his four goals in 12 appearances in MLS had some support, notably from Joseph Lowery of Backheeled and Matt Doyle of Soccerwise/Tactics Free Zone. Not enough to make the list, though.

In the end, New York City FC having no players on this 22U22 feels right, because the team has gradually shifted away from a youth movement that peaked during the 2024 season. That 2024 season, NYCFC fielded the second-youngest squad in MLS (behind the Red Bulls) and seemed positioned to rely on contributions from a mix of international and Homegrown talents under the age of 22.

Instead, two years later, the international prospects under age-22 ended up mostly being disappointments, and the next crop of young Homegrown players hasn't stepped up as hoped and asserted itself, or broken out, at MLS level.

*List was "24 Under 24" until 2018.

New York City had Julián Fernández become the 10th player from the club to make one of these lists in 2025, but even he had a down season while making that 22 Under 22, and by January 2026, he was gone on loan to Rosario Central back in Argentina. Christian McFarlane, the England-born fullback from Queens/Long Island who signed as a Homegrown when he was 15, made the 22 Under 22 in 2024 and made his MLS debut that season, but by January 2025, he'd left to join Manchester City FC.

Fernández never tapped into his big potential with NYCFC and he hasn't been playing a huge role with Rosario Central since leaving. McFarlane had a good season with the Man City U21s in 2025/26, and is now trying his hand at League One in England with Leicester City FC, an experience not going great so far: McFarlane has four appearances in all competitions for Leicester but hasn't played since September 5, and Leicester is struggling in 10th place in the third tier of English soccer.

With those most recent 22U22s gone, no one else under 22 has stepped up and really taken "the leap" under Pascal Jansen at MLS level. The 19-year-old Shore got the most opportunities, appearing in 33 matches in 2025 and 25 in 2026, across all competitions. He's yet to securely step into the role of every-match starter, though, with more experienced players like Andrés Perea, Aiden O'Neill, Keaton Parks, and Kai Trewin available and preferred as starters at different points of this season.

Other Homegrown players that developed alongside Shore, like Máximo Carrizo and Drew Baiera, have gotten even fewer opportunities with the first team, or they've gotten injured. Another one of the younger Homegrowns to get an MLS debut under Jansen, striker Seymour Reid, didn't develop into a reliable MLS option in Jansen's eyes and instead got shipped off to Sporting Kansas City on loan.

Minor roles for young players with potential is something of a surprise, because Jansen arrived from Europe with a reputation for developing young talent, something he had to do while coaching in the youth academies of Vitesse, Sparta Rotterdam, and PSV Eindhoven, or while leading budget-conscious AZ Alkmaar as manager during his lengthy coaching career in the Netherlands.

The kids haven't been blossoming, and it's not just the Homegrown players. In the years immediately before Jansen took over as coach, NYCFC paid real money to sign international youngsters like Julián Fernández, Mitja Ilenić, Jovan Mijatović, and Agustín Ojeda, while Luighi arrived this summer as the first U22 Initiative player picked up under Jansen and new sporting director Todd Dunivant.

Only Ojeda and Luighi count as clear positive contributors in 2026, and Luighi is only on loan through the end of this year with a reported $6 million buy option attached to his loan. Ojeda took until his third season in MLS to really develop into an every-match starter, and by this time, he's aged out of consideration for the 22 Under 22 list.

Maybe this is just temporary, and pending the next wave of talent proving itself ready to contribute at MLS level. The MLS Next Pro team got good minutes and good contributions from Carrizo, from Brazilian international loanee center-back João Loiola, and from prospects like 16-year-old winger El Hadji Samb. That team, which also benefited from older college soccer products on senior MLS contracts, like Cooper Flax and Mac Learned, made the MLS Next Pro playoffs for just the second time in the club's history, losing 3-1 to Chattanooga FC in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals.

They might have options that developed enough to contribute in MLS in 2027, but none of that group has the same prospect shine as the names to make this year's MLS 22 Under 22. The academy prospects NYCFC does have aren't on the accelerated trajectories seen by the likes of Cavan Sullivan or Julian Hall.

Those types of players aren't easy to come by for any youth academy in any soccer-playing country, but that elite level of player under age-22 who is poised for a brief MLS career before making a move to a bigger team in Europe or elsewhere has really eluded NYCFC in recent seasons. Or, in Luighi's case, it might be that a big prospect isn't here in MLS long enough to be considered for recognition on a list like this one, especially if he goes back to Palmeiras.

Opportunity for breakthroughs have been limited. Despite this being a season defined by injuries and an ever-changing state of player availability up and down the NYCFC roster, the club hasn't turned to its youngest, most high-potential academy players, instead leaning on more mature college-experienced players to fill gaps, like MLS SuperDraft picks Nico Cavallo, Arnau Farnós, Max Murray, and Kevin Pierre, who were all called upon to log minutes of varying significance throughout this season.

"Play your kids" has been a long-held, oft-used rallying cry around Major League Soccer. New York City FC has not really done that in 2026, and when they've looked for external solutions, they're no longer shopping young, instead targeting mid-career, experienced players in the transfer market: Aiden O'Neill, Raul Gustavo, Kai Trewin, plus experienced Designated Playerss in Nico Fernández Mercau and Bénie Traoré.

In a season that has seen pretty much everything on the field fall short of expectations for NYCFC, the lack of development or ascension among any of the club's various high-upside young players counts as another shortcoming. It's not close to the main reason why the 2026 team has disappointed, but it's another thing that calls out for some improvement, if New York City is to be as competitive as possible in what's still a league that requires teams to find contributors from within while building rosters on a budget and around some quirky roster rules.

An academy program that once produced a steady stream of well-regarded young players, some who were good enough to go right to Europe (Joe Scally, McFarlane), others good enough to play roles for years in MLS (both Sands brothers, Tayvon Gray, Justin Haak), hasn't had that kind of hit rate recently. The same goes for the international youth the club has imported, an area of diminishing returns.

Missing out entirely on the 22 Under 22 isn't a "big deal" in any real sense for NYCFC, but it's another sign of the changing times for how the squads get built and how the club moves its young players along their pro development pathways.