New York City FC announced today that Homegrown Midfielder James Sands has returned to the Club from loan with German side FC St. Pauli and has signed a contract extension through the 2029\/2030 season\u00a0with\u00a0an option\u00a0for 2030\/2031.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The American made his first appearance and start for FC St. Pauli against Eintracht Frankfurt in January 2025 and has since went on to make 35 appearances across all competitions over a season-and-a-half with the\u00a0Keizkickers, recording one goal and one assist.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
This past season, Sands helped St. Pauli reach the Quarterfinals of the DFB-Pokal, starting in all four of the Club\u2019s matches in the tournament and providing an assist in St. Pauli\u2019s Second Round home win over TSG Hoffenheim.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t be more excited to welcome\u00a0James\u00a0back to New York City,\u201d said Sporting Director Todd Dunivant. \u201cJames has been an important part of this Club\u2019s history, has proven himself in this League, and now brings top European experience. As we continue to build our core roster, James will be a vital member of our group moving forward.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Since making his debut with the \u2018Boys in Blue\u2019 in 2017, the Homegrown has made 143 appearances, scored one\u00a0goal\u00a0and tallied five assists across all competitions with New York City.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really excited to be back with the Club,\u201d said Midfielder James Sands. \u201cNew York City FC has been an important part of my career at every stage. Whether that was developing as a young player\u00a0in the Academy, becoming a Homegrown,\u00a0establishing\u00a0myself in the First Team,\u00a0and\u00a0even giving me these opportunities\u00a0to develop\u00a0in Europe,\u00a0New York City has\u00a0been with me every step of the way. Now\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0my turn to give the best years of my career back to the Club. From day one,\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had a\u00a0great\u00a0connection with the fans, and\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0looking forward to\u00a0keeping\u00a0that going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
A key figure for New York City FC, Sands became the Club\u2019s first Homegrown signing in 2017 and the first Homegrown player to join New York City FC\u2019s Century Club after making 100 appearances. The Midfielder also played\u00a0an important role\u00a0in the \u2018Boys in Blue\u2019 2021 MLS Cup-winning campaign, starting all four playoff matches, including MLS Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Transaction:\u00a0New York City FC Midfielder James Sands returns to the Club from loan and signs a contract extension through the 2029\/2030 season with\u00a0an option\u00a0for 2030\/2031.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York City FC announced today that Homegrown Midfielder James Sands has returned to the Club from loan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[104612,9,11,10,12,1526],"class_list":["post-271294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-james-sands","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-news","tag-transactions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}