Mayra Madrigal
Valentin Castellanos is facing the possibility of winning a Golden Boot again with New York City FC, but for that to happen, he must remain with the ML S team for a while longer.
For several weeks there was a rumor that the Argentinean Valentín Castellanos, better known as “Taty”, was about to leave the New York franchise, because he had several offers from his home country. However, the striker has continued to play for his team and put in good performances, so it is expected that he will continue to improve his records.
NYCFC is the reigning MLS champion and Valentín Castellanos is the league’s scoring champion. His love affair with scoring keeps on giving, and in his most recent match, the South American striker added two more goals to his account, bringing his total in the 2022 MLS season to ten.
His goals were his team’s only ones in a 2-2 draw against Atlanta United at Yankee Stadium. With these 10 goals, “Taty” continues to compete once again for the Golden Boot, and is momentarily tied with Sebastián Driussi and Jesús Ferreira in the goal scorers’ table.
Both Driussi and Ferreira surpass Valentin Castellanos in assists, as the two have four, and the NYC FC player only has one at the moment.
Valentín Castellanos wants to keep scoring goals
The player is a fan favorite and with good reason, as he is the only player in the Big Apple team with double-digit goal scoring records.
Although he is aware of the importance of goals, he confessed that he does not score just to win the Golden Boot again and become the champion goalscorer, but to help his team.
“For me, that’s not the focus. I’m not here to score goals just for the Golden Boot. I’m here to score goals and help my team as much as possible. And then to keep working hard.”
No player in MLS history has won back-to-back Golden Boot awards, and Castellanos could become the first.
The 23-year-old forward could become the sixth MLS player to become a two-time scoring champion. So far the five who accomplished that feat are: Preki in 1997 and 2003 with Kansas City Wizards, Taylor Twellman in 2002 and 2005 with New England Revolution, Jeff Cunningham in 2006 and 2009 with RSL and Dallas, Chris Wondolowski in 2010 and 2012 with San Jose Earthquakes and Bradley Wright-Phillips in 2014 and 2016 with New York Red Bulls.
