Valentin "Taty" Castellanos spent his academy days across South America, being born in Mendoza, Argentina. In 2017, the striker joined City Football Group club Torque FC in Uruguay, where he played his first professional minutes. In July of 2018, Castellanos went on loan to New York City FC, another team that is of course a part of City Football Group. In Taty's first ever NYCFC appearance at Yankee Stadium, he scored a goal against Vancouver. He made minimal starts and appearances for the remainder of the season, as that goal was his only contribution of the year. He played one half in the second leg against Atlanta, where they were eliminated.
NYCFC, despite the lack of minutes, decided that they liked what they saw out of Castellanos, activating his purchase clause. In 2019, he took on a whole new role as the team's starting striker. He opened his account on the year by bringing a ball down and volleying it into the bottom left corner in Minnesota. Nine minutes into the following match at Yankee Stadium, he slid home another goal against Chicago.
He was rewarded with a string of games on the bench. During a 23 minute cameo in Columbus, he got back on the scoresheet by unleashing an absolute rocket from about 35 yards out. In late June, Castellanos did the double against Philadelphia. In a 2-2 match, he laced a low strike into the bottom left, the match-winner. He made it a brace with a clean chip just minutes later. Taty scored another brace against Houston about a month later. He snapped an equalizing header at 83'. To break the knot, he forced home a 93' winner. Two matches later, he scored another brace against FC Cincinnati. He curled home a beauty to tie the match up. He headed another one in for the brace. Just 40 seconds into a match against Dallas, he scored his 11th goal of the season. He finished at that tally, with 7 assists. NYCFC lost 2-1 to Toronto FC in the first round.
In 2020, Castellanos scored his first of the season in the knockout round of the MLS is Back Tournament against Toronto. He scored 5/6 his goal on the shortened season in the final month. He became NYCFC's penalty taker, and netted one against DC United. Half of his goals came in one match, a hat trick in the Hudson River Derby. He scored a header to open the trio of goals, pinged one into the upper 90 for the second, and finished the job from the spot. He won his team the match, 4-3, on Decision Day. NYCFC finished fifth, but lost to the magic of Rodrigo Schlegel and Orlando City in the first round of the playoffs.
In 2021, Valentin Castellanos caught the attention of everyone. He won the Golden Boot, scoring 19 goals, and assisting 8. It was quite a special year for both he and the Pigeons as a unit. Despite losing the first match of the season, Castellanos scored the team's lone goal from close range. No. 11 scored in match number two as well, though he was lucky to get credit for the goal. He horribly mishit his shot, which turned into a clear own goal, but it still counts for him according to the records. In game three, he showboated on Philly, scoring a playful Rabona. In his fourth game came his fourth goal. He became the fifth player in MLS history to score in each of the first four matches of a season. It then took him ten matches to score again, but he would simply not stop scoring from that point on. He returned to scoring in a 5-0 win over Orlando, ending the goal drought with a gimme.
He scored a brace against Inter Miami, heading the first, then he closed it off with a Paneka. Two matches later, he scored a double against New England. He flicked a header past Matt Turner while holding his line. He scored the second while being completely unmarked at the back stick. He scored another Hudson River Derby goal in September. In the final four matches of the season, he went on a serious tear. DC United were in complete disarray on October 23rd, allowing Taty to chip one into a wide open net, then an errant back-pass and slip gave him another. NYCFC led 3-0 in 11 minutes. In the following game, he planted a penalty into the bottom corner. In Fort Lauderdale, he ripped a shot from deep to tie up the Golden Boot race at 17. His Golden Boot-clinching goal came on Decision Day, where he rose above for a header. He won the award through the assists tiebreaker, beating out Ola Kamara in that category.
NYCFC finished fourth place in the Eastern Conference to set up a promising playoff run. The first goal of the playoffs was one of the strangest Taty will ever score, as he bounced a volley directly into the ground, popping the ball straight into the air and over Brad Guzan. After defeating Atlanta United 2-0, they moved onto the big guns, the #1 seeded New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium. Castellanos crashed the back post in minute 109 to give NYCFC the lead. Despite putting his team on his back all season, Taty nearly ended it all with one moment of stupidity, earning a straight red card in extra time. His team got the job done in penalties. They knocked off Philadelphia without him as well. At the 40th minute mark, Steve Clark saw a Castellanos header squeak into his net. He smashed home the first penalty of the shootout. Once Alexander Callens iced the game with his second shootout-winning penalty of the playoffs, NYCFC hoisted MLS Cup in 2021. Castellanos was named to the 2021 MLS Best XI.
In 2022, Taty finished up his time in New York City. He did so in a big way, bagging an additional 13 goals despite only playing the first half of the season. He was well on his way to another Golden Boot. He scored some goals in the CCL, but he actually did not score for quite a few games in MLS play, which makes his 13 even more insane. His first goal of the season came with three more on top of it. He scored his first of the year within the first ten minutes against Real Salt Lake. Number two came from the spot, the third another penalty, and the fourth from a kind deflection. He scored a brace against Atlanta United in early July. He scored yet another brace in the very next match against New England. He scored his final NYCFC goal in poetic fashion, against the New York Red Bulls.
On July 25th, NYCFC loaned out Castellanos to a newly promoted La Liga side in Girona FC, who are also a part of City Football Group. He scored 13 goals in his 35 matches there, but one match was truly historic. Taty put on for MLS on the world stage, scoring four goals against Real Madrid. He became the first player to net four against Real since 1947. One goal against the Spanish giants is cool enough, but four is almost unfathomable. His loan ended a year later, where he technically returned to NYCFC. NYCFC sold Castellanos to Italian Serie A side Lazio for about $17m. Since arriving, he has scored one goal for the club in his seven appearances. The 25-year-old will look to continue carving out a role for himself in Italy, and show out as one of the best products of Major League Soccer. For his unstoppable years in the light blue of New York City FC, Valentin Castellanos comes in at #45.
YEAR | CLUB | MINUTES | GOALS | ASSISTS |
2022 | NYC | 1,463 | 13 | 2 |
2021 | NYC | 2,760 | 19 | 8 |
2020 | NYC | 1,341 | 6 | 3 |
2019 | NYC | 2,052 | 11 | 7 |
2018 | NYC | 446 | 1 | 0 |
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