Keaton Parks has committed his future to New York City FC.
The club announced today that Parks put pen to paper on a contract extension that keeps him with NYCFC through 2026, with option years extending to the 2028 season.
The midfielder first joined NYCFC in January 2019 on loan from S.L. Benfica in Portugal, then made a permanent transfer to New York City and signed a long-term contract in 2020. With the requisite five seasons of service in MLS and a contract entering its final months, MLS Free Agency would have loomed for Parks at the end of the 2024 season.
Instead, he becomes the third member of the NYCFC team to extend their contract this offseason, joining goalkeeper Matt Freese and defender Kevin O’Toole.
Parks bounced back from two injury-plagued seasons in 2021 and 2022, logging a career-high 35 appearances across all competitions in 2023.
His goal contribution numbers don’t jump off the page, two goals and two assists, but he was a consistent and steady presence in the NYCFC midfield all season long, only missing a few games following an ankle injury he suffered in the 0-0 Hudson River Derby at Yankee Stadium in September.
The New York City midfield now looks relatively stable heading into the 2024 season, with Parks, Santiago Rodríguez, and James Sands on long-term contracts and Andrés Perea having just re-joined the team permanently via trade from the Philadelphia Union. Maxi Moralez is also trying to rehab and return from a torn ACL he suffered late last summer, and Cushing also told the press today that he could envision Hannes Wolf potentially playing as a No 10.
How Nick Cushing chooses to fit his central midfield together remains to be seen, and that might qualify as yet another preseason thing to keep an eye on during NYCFC’s Florida and California training camps. What is clear is that Keaton Parks will be a part of the NYCFC midfield mix for a number of years to come, so the Parks Kit synergy will continue to roll on.
