Best MLS Player ESPY Award

Best MLS Player ESPY Award
Awarded for	best MLS player
Country	United States
Presented by	ESPN
First award	2006
Currently held by	Carlos Vela (MEX)
Most awards	Landon Donovan (5 times)
Website	www.espn.co.uk/espys/

The Best MLS Player ESPY Award is an annual award honoring the achievements of an individual from the world of Major League Soccer (MLS). ^[1] It was first awarded as part of the ESPY Awards in 2006. ^[2] The Best MLS Player ESPY Award trophy, designed by sculptor Lawrence Nowlan, ^[3] is presented to the MLS player adjudged to be the best in a given calendar year at the annual ESPY Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. ^[1] Balloting for the award is undertaken by fans over the Internet from between three and five nominees selected by the ESPN Select Nominating Committee, which is composed by a panel of experts. ^[1] It is conferred in July to reflect performance and achievement over the preceding twelve months, which generally includes a portion of each of two MLS seasons. ^[4]

The inaugural winner of the Best MLS Player ESPY Award was LA Galaxy forward Landon Donovan in 2006. ^[5] He is one of two people to have been presented with the award more than once in its history, winning it a further four times in 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011; he also earned a nomination in 2008. English right midfielder David Beckham, also for LA Galaxy, has been the second most successful player, winning twice in 2008 and 2012. American players have been the most successful with five wins and twenty-eight nominations, while those who play in the position of a forward have been recognized on fourteen occasions, and those who have played for LA Galaxy have won a total of nine awards. It was not awarded in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ^[6] The most recent winner of the award was Carlos Vela of Los Angeles FC in 2022. ^[7]

Winners and nominees

Key

*	Player's team won the MLS Cup
†	Player's team lost the MLS Cup
‡	MLS Cup Most Valuable Player

Best MLS Player ESPY Award winners and nominees

Year	Image	Player	Nation	Team	Position	Other nominees	Ref(s)
2006		Landon Donovan	USA	LA Galaxy	Forward	Dwayne De Rosario ( CAN) – San Jose Earthquakes Jaime Moreno ( BOL) – D.C. United Taylor Twellman ( USA) – New England Revolution	[5] [2]
2007		Landon Donovan (2)	USA	LA Galaxy	Forward	Jeff Cunningham ( USA) – Toronto FC Christian Gómez ( ARG) – D.C. United Matt Reis ( USA) – New England Revolution	[8] [9]
2008		David Beckham	ENG	LA Galaxy	Right midfielder	Juan Pablo Ángel ( COL) – New York Red Bulls Cuauhtémoc Blanco ( MEX) – Chicago Fire Landon Donovan ( USA) – LA Galaxy Luciano Emílio ( BRA) – D.C. United	[9] [10]
2009		Landon Donovan (3)	USA	LA Galaxy	Forward	Juan Pablo Ángel ( COL) – New York Red Bulls Jon Busch ( USA) – Chicago Fire Kenny Cooper ( USA) – FC Dallas Guillermo Barros Schelotto ( ARG) – Columbus Crew	[11]
2010		Landon Donovan (4)†	USA	LA Galaxy	Forward	Conor Casey ( USA) – Colorado Rapids Jeff Cunningham ( USA) – FC Dallas Shalrie Joseph ( GRD) – New England Revolution Kasey Keller ( USA) – Seattle Sounders FC	[12] [13]
2011		Landon Donovan (5)*‡	USA	LA Galaxy	Forward	Edson Buddle ( USA) – LA Galaxy David Ferreira ( COL) – FC Dallas Chris Wondolowski ( USA) – San Jose Earthquakes	[14] [15]
2012		David Beckham (2)	ENG	LA Galaxy	Right midfielder	Dwayne De Rosario ( CAN) – D.C. United Brad Davis ( USA) – Houston Dynamo Chris Wondolowski ( USA) – San Jose Earthquakes	[16] [17]
2013		Thierry Henry	FRA	New York Red Bulls	Forward	Chris Wondolowski ( USA) – San Jose Earthquakes Graham Zusi ( USA) – Sporting Kansas City	[18]
2014		Tim Cahill	AUS	New York Red Bulls	Forward	Marco Di Vaio ( ITA) – Montreal Impact Robbie Keane ( IRL) – LA Galaxy Mike Magee ( USA) – Chicago Fire	[19]
2015		Robbie Keane *‡	IRL	LA Galaxy	Forward	Obafemi Martins ( NGA) – Seattle Sounders FC Lee Nguyen ( USA) – New England Revolution Bradley Wright-Phillips ( ENG) – New York Red Bulls	[20]
2016		Sebastian Giovinco	ITA	Toronto FC	Forward	Kei Kamara ( SLE) – New England Revolution Laurent Ciman ( BEL) – Montreal Impact Luis Robles ( USA) – New York Red Bulls	[21] [22]
2017		David Villa	ESP	New York City FC	Forward	Andre Blake ( JAM) – Philadelphia Union Stefan Frei (  SUI) – Seattle Sounders FC Matt Hedges ( USA) – FC Dallas Bradley Wright-Phillips ( ENG) – New York Red Bulls	[23]
2018		Nemanja Nikolić	HUN	Chicago Fire	Forward	Tim Melia ( USA) – Sporting Kansas City Ike Opara ( USA) – Sporting Kansas City Diego Valeri ( ARG) – Portland Timbers	[24] [25]
2019		Zlatan Ibrahimović	SWE	LA Galaxy	Forward	Josef Martínez ( VEN) – Atlanta United FC Aaron Long ( USA) – New York Red Bulls Wayne Rooney ( ENG) – D.C. United	[26]
2020	Not awarded due to the COVID-19 pandemic						[6]
2021		Diego Rossi	URU	Los Angeles FC	Forward	Andre Blake ( JAM) – Philadelphia Union Alejandro Pozuelo ( ESP) – Toronto FC Lucas Zelarayán ( ARM) – Columbus Crew	[27] [28]
2022		Carlos Vela	MEX	Los Angeles FC	Forward	Valentín Castellanos ( ARG) – New York City FC Jesús Ferreira ( USA) – FC Dallas Carles Gil ( ESP) – New England Revolution	[7] [29]

Statistics

Multiple winners and nominees Name Wins Nominations Landon Donovan 5 6 David Beckham 2 2 Robbie Keane 1 2 Chris Wondolowski 0 3 Juan Pablo Ángel 0 2 Andre Blake 0 2 Jeff Cunningham 0 2 Dwayne De Rosario 0 2 Bradley Wright-Phillips 0 2

Winners by team represented Team Wins Nominations LA Galaxy 9 12 New York Red Bulls 2 8 Chicago Fire 1 4 Toronto FC 1 3 New York City FC 1 2 Los Angeles FC 2 2 New England Revolution 0 6 D.C. United 0 5 FC Dallas 0 5 San Jose Earthquakes 0 4 Seattle Sounders FC 0 3 Sporting Kansas City 0 3 Columbus Crew 0 2 Montreal Impact 0 2 Philadelphia Union 0 2 Atlanta United FC 0 1 Colorado Rapids 0 1 Houston Dynamo 0 1 Portland Timbers 0 1

Winners by nation represented Country Winners Nominations USA 5 28 ENG 2 5 ESP 1 3 IRL 1 2 ITA 1 2 MEX 1 2 AUS 1 1 HUN 1 1 SWE 1 1 URU 1 1 ARG 0 4 COL 0 3 CAN 0 2 JAM 0 2 ARM 0 1 BEL 0 1 BOL 0 1 BRA 0 1 GRD 0 1 NGA 0 1 SLE 0 1   SUI 0 1 VEN 0 1

See also

• Landon Donovan MVP Award
• MLS Best XI

References

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External links

• Official website