{"id":478329,"date":"2025-12-29T19:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/478329\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T19:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T19:31:12","slug":"justin-haaks-nycfc-exit-becomes-official-with-la-galaxy-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/478329\/","title":{"rendered":"Justin Haak&#8217;s NYCFC exit becomes official with LA Galaxy deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Haak is now an ex-member of New York City FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The club officially announced his departure to the LA Galaxy on Monday after weeks of speculation, with Haak himself all but signaling his goodbye <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/12\/27\/sports\/justin-haak-pens-emotional-goodbye-to-nycfc-as-hes-set-to-join-la-galaxy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">with an emotional social media post<\/a> over the weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Haak\u2019s deal in Los Angeles is a one-year guaranteed contract through the end of the 2026 MLS season, which includes a club option for June 2027, when MLS begins its transition to the new summer-to-spring calendar.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The departure of the homegrown talent comes after New York City FC made a hard push to keep the center back, which included offering him more money than any of the other clubs that had interest in him, a source with knowledge of the situation told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38045997\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/justin-haak-80-new-york-116123542_141541.jpg\" alt=\"Justin Haak of New York City FC controlling the ball during a game.\" class=\"wp-image-38045997\"  \/>Justin Haak controls the ball during NYCFC\u2019s Nov. 23 match. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>NYCFC\u2019s new sporting director, Todd Dunivant, who doesn\u2019t officially take his post until the new year, was also involved in attempts to keep Haak in the Big Apple.<\/p>\n<p>Haak heads to Los Angeles after making 111 appearances with the first team across all competitions, and he was a member of the 2021 NYCFC squad that captured the MLS Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old Brooklyn native has developed into a key piece and played a major role in the club\u2019s success during the 2025 season, which included <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/29\/sports\/nycfc-routed-by-lionel-messi-inter-miami-as-playoff-run-ends\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">scoring the only goal in the Eastern Conference Finals loss<\/a> to Inter Miami.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNew York City FC thanks Justin for his commitment to the Club and to the New York City community and wishes Justin continued success in the next chapter of his career,\u201d the club said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Haak joined NYCFC\u2019s academy program at the U14 level and signed a professional contract in 2019, rising through the club\u2019s development structure and making him a highly coveted talent once the offseason arrived.<\/p>\n<p>It had been previously reported that Haak drew interest from a number of MLS teams as well as clubs in Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In a post on Saturday, Haak wrote that he was \u201cforever grateful for the opportunities that were given to me as well as the challenges that made me stronger\u201d during his time with New York City FC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can leave this club and city knowing I gave it everything I had every single day,\u201d Haak said. \u201cI will always be supporting and rooting for my guys.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NYCFC and Haak won\u2019t have to wait long to see one another, with the club slated to open the 2026 MLS regular season against the Galaxy on Feb. 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Justin Haak is now an ex-member of New York City FC.\u00a0 The club officially announced his departure to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":478330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337,29097,221,62],"class_list":{"0":"post-478329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles","13":"tag-new-york-city-fc","14":"tag-soccer","15":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115804522925897198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}