What are Valentin Castellanos' stats and what is his salary?

New York City FC won the Eastern Conference final against a covid-depleted Philadelphia Union to reach the MLS Cup for the first time in the club’s history, where they will face 2015 champions Portland on their home turf at Providence Park in the showpiece game on 11 December. When the ball rolls off the spot in Portland, a good deal of NYCFC’s hopes of causing an upset will rest on the shoulders of 23-year-old striker Valentín Castellanos, the MLS Golden Boot winner and league leader in terms of shots and shots on target in 2021.

Castellanos fills Heber's boots at NYCFC

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Castellanos, an Argentina under-23 international, was asked to step up to the plate this season with Heber feeling his way back from a long-term absence due to a torn ACL and 19-year-old Talles Magno adjusting to a new league after joining from Vasco de Gama and he responded in style, scoring four in his first four outings for NYCFC this season and ending with a total of 19 goals and eight assists in 32 MLS appearances. The number of assists Castellanos racked up was sufficient to earn him the Golden Boot in a tiebreaker with DC United’s Ola Kamara and the Argentinean ended the season as he had started it, hitting six goals in the final four games of the regular season.

“We have a top striker,” said NYCFC head coach Ronny Deila after Castellanos bagged a brace against Inter Miami back in August.

Castellanos struck twice in the MLS Playoffs, in the first round against Atlanta United and the Conference semi-finals in extra time against New England. In the Conference Final against Philadelphia, Magno provided the winner in the 88^th minute.

In the MLS Cup final against Portland, Castellanos will go up against Sebastián Blanco and Larrys Mabiala in a bid to beat Nashville midfielder Hany Mukhtar to the top-scorer honors in the 2021 Playoffs, with all three on two goals going into the game.

Valentín Castellanos career stats

Having started his career at Universidad de Chile, Castellanos spent two seasons on loan at Club Atletico Torque in Uruguay before moving to NYCFC on an initial loan in 2018. In total, he scored five times for Torque and managed only one during his loan at Yankee Stadium, albeit on his debut for the club. After signing permanently for NYCFC Castellanos has scored 38 in three seasons, with 2021 being his most prolific to date with a total of 20 in all competitions.

How much does Castellanos earn?

Castellanos signed a new deal at NYCFC earlier this year to keep him with the team until 2025. So far he has been a bargain for the club, earning a base salary of $300,000 with guaranteed salary of $324,806, making him the 15^th highest-paid player on NYCFC’s 20-player senior roster.