Gabe Segal and New York City FC have parted for a second time, as the club has confirmed the 22-year-old has been traded to Houston Dynamo.
Segal gets sent to Houston in exchange for a third-round pick in the 2025 MLS SuperDraft, and NYCFC retain a percentage of any future transfer fee paid for the former Stanford forward, according to the terms of the trade announced by both teams.
Tom Bogert of The Athletic first reported that Segal would be traded to the reigning US Open Cup champions on February 9.
Sending Segal to Houston might be a further sign that another new striker is incoming at NYCFC. Reports have, for weeks, indicated that NYCFC’s signing of Jovan Mijatović, 18-year-old from Red Star Belgrade, is imminent—the teen striker has posted on Instagram about traveling to New York City and, for a brief period, included NYCFC as his current club in his Instagram bio.
Segal has had a whirlwind year, going from the reserve squad of FC Köln in Germany, to NYCFC, to Hapoel Tel Aviv, back to NYCFC, and now on to Houston Dynamo. That short-lived move to Hapoel Tel Aviv was also disrupted by Israel’s league suspending play due to the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 and subsequent war.
Now the Maryland native will hope for some continuity with his new Western Conference club. Houston are bringing Segal in possibly in part due to the departure of forward Corey Baird, who made 48 appearances across all competitions for Houston in 2023, but has since signed with FC Cincinnati as a free agent.
For his part, Segal proved to be a huge value signing for NYCFC: He earned a league-minimum salary of $67,360 in 2023 while scoring two (extremely clutch) goals in 12 appearances in all competitions for New York City.
The two goals Gabe Segal scored in his NYCFC career directly translated to two points earned for the team in a season where they missed out on the MLS Cup Playoffs by a slim two-point margin. While brief and on-again, off-again, Gabe Segal’s tenure with NYCFC was certainly memorable, and now he’ll look to settle into the Houston Dynamo attack and stabilize his club career after months of change.
