They never lived in NYC afaik. His family would drive him down to NYC almost every day after school and on weekends, from Connecticut where they lived, for a few years this went on. His family were lovely people-- we went to a few regional tournament weekends together when we were both involved in Kickers, as well as one in Barcelona and Tarragona for two weeks (amazing trip! It was then I saw Real Madrid beat Barca in the Copa del Rey final in Valencia, on Bale's late winner). I'm sure that trip was when he was first scouted by Espanyol and others. I think they were already heading to Europe when NYCFC started up its academy.Listening to the Scuffed podcast Monday review for this week, and they are having an extensive discussion on Luca Koleosho. Seems he grew up in NYC until he was 12, and that's when his parents moved the family to Spain to further his soccer career. He is eligible for Italy, Canada, USA and Nigeria. He has played for Italy's youth teams and was on the bench for some Canadian senior team friendlies last year.
I wonder if he was ever approached by NYCFC for a spot in the academy. I suppose in 2017, it still wasn't a proven commodity for developing players, but you can't argue against it these days.