New York City FC Midfielder Hannes Wolf Voted MLS Player of the Matchday Presented by Michelob ULTRA for Matchday 12

NEW YORK (Monday, May 11, 2026) – New York City FC midfielder Hannes Wolf was voted the Major League Soccer Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob ULTRA for Matchday 12 of the 2026 MLS season.

Wolf scored his first MLS hat trick for New York City FC as part of the club’s convincing 3-0 victory against the Columbus Crew on Saturday (Watch Highlights From His Performance Here). Wolf produced the eighth regular-season hat trick in club history and the first since Alonso Martínez did so on July 25, 2025. The Austrian midfielder is also the seventh different player to produce a hat trick in the 2026 regular season. With his three goals, Wolf has now recorded 37 regular-season goal contributions (21 goals, 16 assists) in his New York City FC career, which is the seventh-most in club history and one shy of Martínez and Jesús Medina (38) for the fifth-most.

New York City opened the scoring in the 12th minute after a lengthy passing movement started with goalkeeper Matt Freese, found Agustín Ojeda, and resulted in Wolf placing a one-timed finish into the corner of the net (Watch Here). Four minutes later, Wolf added his second goal of the match with another one-touch finish from close range to make it 2-0 (Watch Here). The Austrian midfielder completed his hat trick in the 66th minute with his third one-timed goal – this time from just outside the 18-yard box to seal all three points for the home side (Watch Here).

This is the first time that Wolf has been named MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob ULTRA and joins Alonso Martínez (twice) as the only New York City FC players to earn the honor since the start of the 2023 season. Wolf becomes the second Austrian player to earn the award, joining Daniel Royer who did so on Matchday 20 of 2017.

Wolf and New York City next face Charlotte FC on Wednesday, May 13 (7:15 p.m. ET, MLS on Apple TV / FS1) before a Hudson River Derby against Red Bull New York on Saturday, May 16 (7:30 p.m. ET, MLS on Apple TV).

The MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Michelob ULTRA is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while an Instagram fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.