Despite all of the craziness and changes in the offseason, FC Dallas players begin preseason camp today in Frisco.
Eric Quill begins his reign as manager of the club. As the club hit the offseason, sporting director Andre Zanotta claimed it wouldn’t be a full rebuild for the club, but as the weeks wore on, it was pretty clear that the team wasn’t going to just have a new identity under Quill, but that they were going to look drastically different due to all of the various moves going on.
As of this writing, there are several moves still pending or in motion. The two biggest are the Alan Velasco transfer to Boca Juniors and the Paul Arriola trade to Seattle. So, for today’s purposes, neither one will be discussed in this post.
Here are five(-ish) players I see needing a strong preseason to help FC Dallas out in a big way in 2025.

Nkosi Tafari
We all know 2024 was rough for Tafari. He came in with high expectations after earning a January camp invite from the USMNT to a player that fell completely out of favor with former interim manager Peter Luccin.
What will 2025 bring for him as the club showed enough favor in keeping him instead of declining his contract option at the start of the offseason?
For me, he has to reestablish himself as a key leader and starter for this team. With so many changes this offseason, the club is in desperate need of leadership and he’s shown at times to be a great leader for the team when his head is in the game.
So, first up, is winning a roster battle with Sebastien Ibeagha and/or newcomer Lalas Abubakar.