Position: Left Back
Age: 26
Key Stat: 2391 minutes played in 2024 — after 1190 in 2023 and 270 in 2022
Last year, Kevin O'Toole became a write-his-name-in-Sharpie starter.
The left-back started 28 out of a possible 34 games in the 2024 Major League Soccer regular season and was in the starting lineup for all four playoff games. He was one of eight players who formed the core of the New York City FC squad, and his 2391 minutes in the regular season was the seventh-highest on the team. It was more than double the 1190 minutes he logged in 2023.
To put it in simple terms, O'Toole made the left-back position his in 2024.
He earned it. O'Toole fought for minutes the year before with Braian Cufré, the left-back who was brought in from RCD Mallorca at the start of the 2023 season and given the sixth-highest salary on the team. But Cufré fell out of favor as the year progressed, and was released at the end of the 2023 season.
The front office didn't bring in anybody to contend with O'Toole for the position in 2024. True, there was nominal competition at left-back from Christian McFarlane, the wunderkind considered one of the top prospects on the planet who signed with Manchester City last month. But McFarlane spent most of the year at NYCFC II, and made just four starts in the regular season: McFarlane filled in for O'Toole after the Princeton graduate suffered an injury in the July 6 loss to Austin FC, but he didn't seriously contest O'Toole's grip on the position as much as proved to be an adept backup when needed.
O'Toole looks to be the everyday starter in 2025. With McFarlane gone and no new left-backs signed to the team, the position is once again his.
