Orlando City
2025 Orlando City Season in Review: Shakur Mohammed
The Ghanaian forward spent most of his third pro season with OCB, seeing limited minutes with the first team.
Orlando City selected forward Shakur Mohammed with the No. 2 overall selection out of Duke in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft. The Kumasi, Ghana native signed a Generation Adidas deal with Major League Soccer prior to the draft, meaning the club selecting him would receive salary cap relief during the early part of his career while he developed.
Mohammed did not appear with the first team in his first pro season, spending 2023 with Orlando City B in MLS NEXT Pro. He has been there ever since, but he has improved, seeing some limited minutes with the senior squad over the last two seasons. He scored a team-high 11 goals with OCB in 2024, helping the Young Lions reach the postseason. In his third pro season, Shak spent pretty much the entire year with OCB again, matching his team-high 11 goals in 27 matches. However, he also saw a few minutes with the first team during the MLS regular season.
Let’s take a look at Mohammed’s limited first-team minutes in his third season.
Statistical Breakdown
Mohammed began the season starting at forward and attacking midfielder for OCB, playing 27 games (all starts) and recording 2,354 minutes. He scored 11 goals on 71 shots with 28 on target, but registered no assists. He completed 561 passes on 645 attempts (87%), completed two crosses, and logged 24 key passes. He committed 24 fouls, suffered 30 fouls, and earned three yellow cards.
He only made two appearances for the first team in the regular season, and did not appear in any other competitions. Both of those appearances occurred in the late stages of the matches totaling four minutes. He completed three passes on three attempts (100%), and won one of his three aerial duels (33%).
Best Game
It’s not hard to pick Mohammed’s best game since there are only two to choose from. He played three of his four total minutes in the 1-1 draw with D.C. United on Sept. 13. Mohammed completed both of his passes and won an aerial. He even almost had a chance at scoring the winning goal. As we said in our Player Grades for the match, “…had (Alex) Freeman hit more of a cross than a shot off of (Martin) Ojeda’s late free kick, he might have scored the game-winner, as he was in position to connect with the ball but it was too high for him.”
2025 Final Grade
Mohammed fell short of the 450 combined first-team minutes (regular season, playoffs, U.S. Open Cup, Leagues Cup) necessary to qualify for a season grade. Therefore, The Mane Land has to give him an incomplete rating for the 2025 campaign.
2026 Outlook
Mohammed has led OCB in goals two seasons in a row. He hasn’t made the next step to truly get first team minutes. If not for the injuries and schedule congestion for the first team, he likely doesn’t even get the four minutes he did get this season. That being said, he is an asset for OCB and is young enough to still develop though that will need to happen sooner than later.
I expect Mohammed to be back with OCB, and he might see limited minutes with the first team depending on how he develops and if there are still depth issues with the first team.