NYCFC is on the verge of snagging the firepower it so desperately needs up front, as they are nearing a deal with Mali international striker Moussa Sylla, sources confirm with amNewYork.
Florian Plettenberg of Sky Sports Germany was the first to report that the two parties were inching toward an agreement.
The 26-year-old Sylla has spent the last two seasons with Schalke in the second tier of German soccer. A product of the French side Monaco, with stops in the Netherlands and elsewhere in France along the way, he scored 16 goals in 27 league matches during his debut campaign in Germany last year.
He has four goals and two assists in 17 league matches this season. Schalke currently sits in first place in 2. Bundesliga, which provides automatic promotion to the famed top flight of German soccer, should they remain there.
Sylla, though, is not a part of the club’s plans. He was held out of their 2-2 draw against FC Kaiserslautern on Sunday in anticipation of the move to New York, with things expected to be finalized in the coming days.
The transfer fee is rumored to be worth roughly $8.3 million.
NYCFC sporting director Todd Dunivant and head coach Pascal Jansen both stated that it was a top priority this offseason to replace the goals lost when Alonso Martinez tore his ACL while on international duty with Costa Rica in November.
Leading the team with 19 goals during the MLS regular season and playoffs, he is expected to be out until after the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which runs until July 19.
“We’re going to have to make sure that we find replacements,” Dunivant said last week. “Alonso scored a lot of goals, and we’ve got to make sure we find that within the team.”
Martinez’s absence left NYCFC considerably thin up front. Outside of Hannes Wolf, Talles Magno is returning from a loan spell at Brazil’s Corinthians, and Malachi Jones is trying to come back from a pair of gruesome leg injuries that have kept him out for the majority of the previous two seasons.
