The Goalkeeper of the Year award is handed out at the end of the regular season, and has been since the league began. It is bestowed upon the goalie deemed to have been the safest pair of hands that year. As far as individual awards go, it’s about as big as it gets for the guys between the sticks.
It’s a nice bit of recognition for keepers in general as well, because so often it is what happens at the other end of the pitch that gets all the attention. It’s much easier for a midfield dynamo or a goal scoring machine to stand out as spectacular than a goalkeeper, but a top goalie can win you matches, make no mistake. Having a trusted keeper behind them makes the rest of the team play with more confidence, and miracle saves can keep games alive that would otherwise have been lost.
Some clubs have produced several winners while others have never had a winner, and there are even a handful of names that appear on this list more than once. Andre Blake is the current record holder with three wins under his belt.
List of Every Goalkeeper of the Year
Here is the list of every MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, from the very first season in 1996 to today.
A nice bit of trivia for you before we start: Tony Meola is the only goalkeeper to have every won the MVP (Most Valuable Player) as well as the Goalkeeper of the Year award, which he managed in 2000 while playing for Kansas City Wiz (as they were then known).
Anyway, here is the list:
| Year | Goalkeeper | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Mark Dodd | Dallas Burn |
| 1997 | Brad Friedel | Columbus Crew |
| 1998 | Zach Thornton | Chicago Fire |
| 1999 | Kevin Hartman | Los Angeles Galaxy |
| 2000 | Tony Meola | Kansas City Wizards |
| 2001 | Tim Howard | MetroStars |
| 2002 | Joe Cannon | San Jose Earthquakes |
| 2003 | Pat Onstad | San Jose Earthquakes |
| 2004 | Joe Cannon | Colorado Rapids |
| 2005 | Pat Onstad | San Jose Earthquakes |
| 2006 | Troy Perkins | D.C. United |
| 2007 | Brad Guzan | Chivas USA |
| 2008 | Jon Busch | Chicago Fire |
| 2009 | Zach Thornton | Chivas USA |
| 2010 | Donovan Ricketts | LA Galaxy |
| 2011 | Kasey Keller | Seattle Sounders FC |
| 2012 | Jimmy Nielsen | Sporting Kansas City |
| 2013 | Donovan Ricketts | Portland Timbers |
| 2014 | Bill Hamid | D.C. United |
| 2015 | Luis Robles | New York Red Bulls |
| 2016 | Andre Blake | Philadelphia Union |
| 2017 | Tim Melia | Sporting Kansas City |
| 2018 | Zack Steffen | Columbus Crew SC |
| 2019 | Vito Mannone | Minnesota United FC |
| 2020 | Andre Blake | Philadelphia Union |
| 2021 | Matt Turner | New England Revolution |
| 2022 | Andre Blake | Philadelphia Union |
| 2023 | Roman Bürki | St. Louis CITY SC |
| 2024 | Kristijan Kahlina | Charlotte FC |
| 2025 | Dayne St. Clair | Minnesota United FC |
*Names in bold denote the winner has won the award before
Who Selects the Winner?
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Like all of the other individual MLS awards, the Goalkeeper of the Year winner is decided by a vote.
The voting pool is split evenly between three different groups, with each group accounting for a third of the final result:
- Current MLS players
- Club technical staff (including coaches and executives)
- Selected members of the media
All voters rank their top choices, then the votes are counted, ordered, and a winner is announced. It’s really simple. The one important thing to note is that only regular season performances are considered, so it’s fair for everyone involved, and players at bigger or better clubs don’t have an advantage over the others.
Any goalkeeper can be considered, but in reality, it’s only ever first choice keepers or those who have stepped in due to injury that receive votes. Each voter uses their own method to decide who they vote for and in what order, there is no official statistical element to the process, so Goalkeeper of the Year is effectively awarded by the winner’s peer group based only on their collective opinion.