Right now, New York City FC finds itself flush with good young fullbacks.
Two of the team's right-backs recently earned places in back-to-back MLS Team of the Matchdays; one has the second-most goal contributions in a season of any defender in New York City FC history; and multiple NYCFC fullbacks have of late become fixtures in their national teams at senior and youth levels.
This current group of New York City fullbacks – Tayvon Gray, Mitja Ilenič, Kevin O'Toole, Christian McFarlane, and Drew Baiera – is young, talented, and, when you weigh their individual potential and talent against the costs of each of their acquisitions, they're bargains. This group also makes up what is likely one of the deepest positions on the NYCFC depth chart.
Given that there's already rumored transfer interest in a few of these players, fullback also looks like the position most likely to yield transfer profits, whenever the time comes for New York City to sell some of these promising players on to interested clubs.
For now, this group is intact and the fullback positions look to have high-quality options in place for years to come, but it feels worthwhile to review just how New York City got so good at churning out left- and right-backs.
Winning at right-back roulette
The team has two right-backs under the age of 23 — Tayvon Gray, 22, and Mitja Ilenič, 19 — who both earned places in the MLS Team of the Matchday after scoring their first-ever NYCFC goals in the team's recent wins over the Red Bulls and FC Cincinnati.
Gray and Ilenič have been outright competing for the job of starting New York City FC right-back since Ilenič arrived via a €1 million transfer from NK Domzale ahead of the 2023 MLS season. No clear winner has emerged because both players have shown to be quality and shown that they continue to deserve looks as starters.
While they're both with New York City, they present Nick Cushing with a dilemma each matchday, and his solution has been to almost evenly split the available minutes up between the two. Gray logged 1,575 MLS minutes across 18 starts and 26 appearances, while Ilenič has 1,437 minutes in 16 starts and 22 appearances.
The two right-backs have downplayed there being an actual competition between them, with Ilenič telling the media, "I would not even call it a competition between Tayvon Gray and I, because between each other everything is clear. We are really great teammates. There is no pressure on any of us. In my opinion, it is just in the moment who is doing better, and it's also nice to see both of us progress."
The Tinnerholm standard
Both right-backs have progressed, but the leap taken by Tayvon Gray this season is most notable and has brought back some memories of NYCFC's best-ever player at this position.
Gray, a Homegrown player now in his fourth season playing for New York City, is enjoying a true breakout in 2024. He scored a peach of a first NYCFC goal against the Red Bulls but also picked up his seventh assist of the season, on a lofted pass to the back post that Andrés Perea buried for the team's third goal of the first half.
Eight goal contributions in a season is huge production for a defender, especially one who plays for New York City FC. Only one defender in club history other than Gray has had as many goals involvements in a season: Anton Tinnerholm, who did it in three straight seasons from 2018-2020, a stretch in which he peaked with ten goal contributions (four goals, six assists) in 2018.
Tinnerholm is an interesting player to think about in relation to this new crop of fullbacks. He remains the gold-standard NYCFC fullback, probably the best fullback in MLS during that peak portion of his New York City career from 2018 up until he ruptured his Achilles tendon just a few months before NYCFC won MLS Cup 2021.
Nick Cushing overlapped with Tinnerholm in 2020 and 2021 when he was Ronny Deila's assistant coach, and earlier this season, Cushing made clear that the team set a goal for Gray to add more Tinnerholm to his game.
Following NYCFC's 4-2 win over Orlando City SC at Yankee Stadium, a game in which Gray picked up two assists, Cushing said "The one area that we've consistently spoken to him about is whether he can emulate Anton [Tinnerholm] and add assists and goals to his game. Can he be a real offensive threat in the final third and push numbers, put numbers on?"
The stats have been there for Gray this season. Gray ranks in the 97th-98th percentile on a per-90-minute basis among MLS fullbacks for assists and expected assisted goals (xAG), while also placing in the 93rd percentile for his 1.66 interceptions made per 90, according to FBRef.com.
Tayvon Gray - assists goals and stops opposition wingers getting past. The ideal full-back. #NYCFC 🇯🇲 pic.twitter.com/9oXx5Z8pZl
— James Nalton (@JDNalton) September 30, 2024
The RB of the future?
Gray and Ilenič have gone back and forth at the MLS level while yet another talented young right-back is waiting in the wings behind them in MLS NEXT Pro. That would be 17-year-old Homegrown signee Drew Baiera, who has enjoyed a solid first full season with New York City FC II in MLS NEXT Pro.
Andrew Baiera runs the ball straight home for the THIRD! 👀@newyorkcityfcii is flying. pic.twitter.com/4p3zAkoYlg
— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) May 13, 2024
Baiera has made 26 appearances in all competitions this year and has scored four goals across his NEXT Pro and US Open Cup games. Baiera even made the bench (via short-term loan agreement) for the senior NYCFC squad during a busy summer stretch of fixtures, when he was an unused substitute during the team's 2-2 draw with Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in July.
Baiera might have already gotten his full debut at MLS level if he wasn't behind Gray and Ilenič. Instead, he's spent this year pushing NYCFC II towards a first-ever berth in the MLS NEXT Pro playoffs – which the IIs clinched despite losing their Decision Day home match against Huntsville City FC.
The 17-year-old from Darien, Connecticut is knocking on the MLS door, and he's also grown into a regular with the United States youth national teams.
All three NYCFC right-backs have had seasons good enough to draw continued attention from their national teams, and each of Gray, Ilenič, and Baiera have received call-ups for games played during this current October international break.
Baiera played with the United States U-18 squad in September and has now gone up an age group, called into a USA U-19 team set to play matches against Sweden on October 11 and Japan on October 15.
Gray got a call back to the Jamaica national team for what will be his first camp under new Reggae Boyz manager Steve McClaren, he of stints leading the England national team and clubs like Newcastle United among many others.
Ilenič is a staple with Slovenia's youth national teams, with another call-up just received for an upcoming U-21 European Championships qualifier against the Austria U-21s.
This trio looks to have the right-back position locked down, potentially for seasons to come, though that could also depend heavily on transfer interest from abroad. Ilenič was linked with a transfer to Hellas Verona in Italy's Serie A in January, while Gray was rated as the most valuable right-back currently playing in MLS, according to a Tom Bogert collaboration with TransferRoom back in May.
Baiera's time in MLS might come sooner than you'd have expected for a 17-year-old, depending on how the transfer winds blow.
The Joe Scally model
You can't discuss young NYCFC fullback development and transfers without also mentioning the first iteration of the team developing and selling a fullback for a sizable profit: Joe Scally, the second-ever NYCFC Homegrown signing who now plays for Borussia Mönchengladbach in the German Bundesliga, and for the senior United States men's national team.
Scally was sold to Mönchengladbach when he was 16 in what the team described at the time as "an unprecedented move for a player who has yet to make his Major League Soccer debut." It was supposedly for the highest initial transfer fee paid for a 16-year-old out of MLS as of October 2019.
His academy-level development, progression through to the NYCFC First Team, then sale to an interested European club feels like a blueprint every youth player with the club would like to follow. It also feels like the plan NYCFC Sporting Director David Lee is trying to recreate with 17-year-old Homegrown left-back Christian McFarlane.
McFarlane is already reported to be "sold" to Manchester City FC – sister club of NYCFC in that big happy City Football Group family – despite only making 13 career appearances in MLS and Leagues Cup combined.
He might be the most promising and highest potential of this group of young fullbacks. McFarlane was signed by New York City at just 14-years-old and got linked with potential transfers to German giants Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, plus Man City, before he'd even made his MLS debut.
Whenever McFarlane is officially announced as leaving New York City, be it this winter or later, you'd expect some of the details of his move to mirror Scally's transfer.
The Scally transfer was reportedly worth $2 million, with incentives included that could have kicked it up to $7 million. The transfer also included a clause that stipulated NYCFC will receive a percentage of any future Scally transfer out of Mönchengladbach – smart business considering Scally was linked with teams in the big-spending English Premier League as recently as January 2024.
O'Toole's time, too
Scally barely played for NYCFC before leaving for Germany – seven appearances across all competitions – because he was stuck behind peak Anton Tinnerholm, and even McFarlane has been forced to wait patiently for his opportunities.
That's because NYCFC's fullback development pipeline isn't exclusive to calling up hotshot prospects from the club's Academy. The club's scouts and coaches have also managed to convert a college forward into the First Team's clear starter at left-back – 25-year-old Kevin O'Toole, who has excelled when healthy during the 2024 campaign.
O'Toole played as a forward during his youth and collegiate careers but has learned the trade of attacking fullback with New York City since his selection in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft. In 2022 and 2023, he had to wait until late in the season to get his most consistent opportunities, stuck behind players like Malte Amundsen and Braian Cufré for much of those seasons.
Not the case in 2024, as the team went all-in on O'Toole, giving him a contract extension before this season began. He made 31 appearances in all competitions so far this season, which includes 27 starts, and has tallied one goal and three assists across those games.
The Princeton (and Red Bulls academy) product has grown into a significant part of New York City's buildup play, as O'Toole is fifth on the team in total touches of the ball in MLS play this season, and has completed 82% of his passes while acting as a conduit between the NYCFC defense and attacking contingent.
The fullback profile
Acting as connectors and as players who progress the ball toward the opposition's goal from wide areas has been the ask of all the fullbacks New York City has deployed this season.
They don't all aggressively look for their own shots as often as Anton Tinnerholm once did, and none except for Gray have put up eye-popping attacking numbers, as he's been uniquely successful as a crosser of the ball this season. Yet the whole group has excelled in different ways.
McFarlane came close to scoring a first-career goal a few times in his NYCFC appearances and looked willing and able to make dangerous runs up into advanced spots and into the attacking penalty area. He seemed to learn and grow on the job while covering for an injured O'Toole, never overly exposed defensively despite his eagerness to push forward.
O'Toole has been more heavily involved as a distributor out of the back than the rest of his fellow fullbacks in many of New York City's 2024 matches, an accurate passer who can become an extra midfielder and help set the tempo of NYCFC's passing game when in possession.
The right-backs seem tasked with receiving upfield passes from New York City's central midfielders and defenders, overlapping with and helping open up opportunities for right-winger Hannes Wolf to get past the last line of the opposing defense.
Ilenič is particularly good at doing this, ranking in the 85th percentile of MLS fullbacks for progressive passes received per 90 minutes. Gray isn't as much of a forward-pass receiver, only in the 64th percentile for progressive passes received, but he's been the one delivering the end product as he racks up the assists and now goals.
All of the team's fullbacks are young, didn't cost much for New York City to acquire, and all earn low salaries by MLS standards – especially the three Homegrown signings at fullback. It costs NYCFC around $1.1 million in combined total 2024 salary to have Gray, Ilenič, O'Toole, McFarlane, and Baiera on the roster.
Oliver Strand
Three of them had to work their way up from MLS NEXT Pro to the First Team. McFarlane, O'Toole, and Baiera made a combined 81 appearances with NYCFC II, with Baiera (38) and McFarlane (32) accounting for the bulk of those.
Like Joe Scally before them, many of these players soon could move for big money and to bigger teams than NYCFC. Attacking fullbacks are in high demand in the modern game, and New York City has had a knack for finding ones that can get the job done week in and week out in MLS.
The club has had such great results producing players in this part of the field that they didn't seem to hesitate to ship out someone like Malte Amundsen, who won MLS Cup 2021 with NYCFC but was still deemed surplus enough to be sent to an Eastern Conference rival (who he has since helped win a few other trophies, albeit while playing a left-center-back role for Columbus).
Fullback has been a spot so rich in talent and it's likely to again be a source of decent-sized transfer fees, though while this current crop remains in place, NYCFC supporters will just be hoping for more Tinnerholm-esque performances en route to more trophies.
