Nashville SC enters the 2026 season a much-changed group from 2025. With a new Designated Player, a series of exciting additions and more depth than they’ve had in years, the Boys in Gold look to have one of the best and most flexible rosters in Club history.
Designated Players
Nashville’s trio of Designated Players — a tag MLS teams may put on up to three players to sign elite talent outside the salary cap — sat unchanged from 2023-2025, occupied by 2022 MLS MVP Hany Mukhtar, 2025 golden boot runner-up Sam Surridge and longtime club captain Walker Zimmerman. The offseason departure of Zimmerman opened one of those slots, however, which was soon replaced by the best available free agent in the league: former San Jose Earthquakes winger Cristian Espinoza.
The 30-year-old Argentine joined the Boys in Gold in January as San Jose’s all-time assists leader and a two-time MLS All-Star. With Surridge and Mukhtar continuing at the club, Nashville’s DP trio now lays claim to one of, if not the, best attacking lineups in the league.
New faces
Nashville’s offseason was headlined by Espinoza but supported by a talented new class across the roster. Second to Espinoza in projected impact is 24-year-old Ghanaian defender Maxwell Woledzi, who joined the Boys in Gold after a stellar spell with Norwegian club FredrikstadFK in which he won 2025 Player of the Year honors. Young forwards Woobens Pacius (Haiti) and Warren Madrigal (Costa Rica) arrived to bolster Surridge in attack, allowing Nashville to rotate its entire front line if it wants to with the subsequent addition of wide midfielder Abdul Shakur Mohammed.
Elsewhere, Reed Baker-Whiting, Thomas Williams and Isaiah LeFlore arrived to add depth and youth to Nashville’s defense, while MLS SuperDraft third-round pick Charles-Emile Brunet signed with the club after an impressive preseason in midfield.
Key returners
Even with the abundance of new faces, much of Nashville’s roster remains consistent from a year ago. Starting midfielders Eddi Tagseth and Patrick Yazbek look to build on their stellar first full campaigns in gold, as do defenders Jeisson Palacios and MLS All-Star Andy Najar. Goalkeeper Brian Schwake, a hero of Nashville’s 2025 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup triumph, is poised for a breakout season. Veterans Alex Muyl, Bryan Acosta, Dan Lovitz, Jack Maher, Josh Bauer and Joe Willis all return for 2026, boosted by impact youngsters Matthew Corcoran, Ahmed Qasem, Chris Applewhite, Jordan Knight and Xavier Valdez.
Najar, Palacios and Tagseth — alongside head coach B.J. Callaghan — all signed contract extensions this offseason as well, keeping them in Music City for the foreseeable future.
Full roster
Goalkeepers:
1 Joe Willis, USA
13 Xavier Valdez, Dominican Republic
99 Brian Schwake, USA
Defenders:
2 Dan Lovitz, USA
3 Maxwell Woledzi, Ghana
4 Jeisson Palacios, Colombia
5 Jack Maher, USA
18 Isaiah LeFlore, USA
21 Thomas Williams, USA
22 Josh Bauer, USA
23 Jordan Knight, Canada
27 Reed Baker-Whiting, USA
31 Andy Najar, Honduras
33 Chris Applewhite, USA
Midfielders:
6 Bryan Acosta, Honduras
7 Cristian Espinoza, Argentina
8 Patrick Yazbek, Australia
10 Hany Mukhtar, Germany
12 Charles-Emile Brunet, Canada
14 Abdul Shakur Mohammed, Ghana
16 Matthew Corcoran, USA
19 Alex Muyl, USA
20 Edvard Tagseth, Norway
37 Ahmed Qasem, Sweden
Forwards:
9 Sam Surridge, England
17 Woobens Pacius, Haiti
41 Warren Madrigal, Costa Rica
