AVELLANEDA, ARGENTINA – AUGUST 10: Agustin Ojeda of Racing Club celebrates after scoring the team’s … [+]
New York City FC continue to build their squad ahead of the 2024 Major League Soccer season, announcing on Friday the signing of Argentine winger Agustin Ojeda from Racing Club.
The 19-year-old joins the club on an MLS U22 initiative contract through 2028 with an option for 2029.
NYCFC has already secured a permanent deal for Andrés Perea from Philadelphia Union and confirmed the signing of Austrian attacking midfielder Hannes Wolf during this preseason.
The New York franchise has also been linked to Uruguayan striker Matias Arezo and 18-year-old Serbian forward Jovan Mijatovic who is of wider interest to NYCFC’s multi-club owners, City Football Group.
About Ojeda
AVELLANEDA, ARGENTINA – JUNE 28: Agustin Ojeda of Racing Club competes for the ball with Juan … [+]
Ojeda’s most prominent attribute is his directness. He is always looking to drive forward and take players on and is often inventive in how he does so.
To go with this willingness to lurch his team forward, he boasts a quickness that helps him do so and should trouble defenders at MLS level.
Ojeda seems to prefer playing from the left wing where he can cut inside onto his stronger right foot. He can also attack the byline from this side, where his passing inside with his left foot seems decent enough.
He can play on the right too, if NYCFC is looking for a more traditional winger to take on his man on the outside and deliver crosses, though the added threat of getting in on goal from the left wing might be more beneficial.
There might also be the option of using him as an attacking midfielder through the middle. He occasionally drifts into this area anyway, especially when playing from the left.
He’s good at picking the ball up with his back to goal and turning quickly away from any attempts at physical man-marking.
There might be some running up blind alleys and losses of possession but learning to pick his moments and decide when to dribble or when to pass and move should be something that happens with experience and coaching.
This quickness on the ball should transfer well to pressing off it. Agility is important when it comes to pressing from the front and Ojeda certainly possesses plenty of that.
With some coaching on the channels to run out of possession and the moments in which to apply pressure, he should be effective in this regard.
Fitting in at NYCFC
“Agustín is an exciting, dynamic winger with a lot of pace and attributes that we believe will translate to MLS,” said NYCFC Sporting Director David Lee.
“He’s a very talented player with high potential and he’ll add more variety and competition to our front line, being able to play on either the right or left side.
“Having gained meaningful senior experience in Argentina, both domestically and internationally in the Copa Libertadores, we believe Agustín adds a different profile to the current wingers we have on our team, and we’re excited for him to join the club.”
There is some element of the unknown about Ojeda as he has not played too many minutes in professional football. Transfermarkt has him at 1,184 minutes in total.
Despite this, you can see what attracted an MLS club like NYCFC to him.
His contract with Racing runs through 2026 so he will have commanded a transfer fee. This is thought to be around $7.5 million.
It’s slightly more than the fee of $5.5 million paid for Gabriel Pereira in 2022 but it is a similar type of transfer. NYCFC sold Pereira for double that just over a year later to Al-Rayyan in Qatar.
Boca Juniors’ Luis Advincula in action with Racing Club’s Axel Agustin Ojeda during the Copa … [+]
Despite relative inexperience at senior level, NYCFC should at least get their money’s worth for Ojeda.
If it works out as the club hopes it will, he will be a valuable piece on the pitch during his time at the club, and potentially valuable in terms of a future sale further down the line.
He offers the kind of go-forward NYCFC have sometimes missed across the ground.
There has often been neat passing and switches of play to move the ball, but sometimes a lack of carrying and progressing with the ball at feet which takes defenders out of the game and opens spaces in that way.
“He’s an exciting direct winger who loves to take on his opponent, and immediately made an impression for Racing,” says South American football expert Tom Robinson.
“Having said that, he’s barely had 10 senior starts and is still raw and inexperienced, so the reported fee took me a bit by surprise.”
The limited minutes played—around a third of a full MLS season—means less to go on for anyone, including professional scouts, trying to judge a player’s ability and predict their ceiling, but Ojeda looks well worth the chance being taken on him.
His play could range from frustrating to exciting. Against most MLS defenses, NYCFC will be banking on it being the latter.
