Landon Donovan MVP Award

The Landon Donovan MVP Award is an annual award for Major League Soccer players. It is voted on by media, MLS players, and club management and is given to the player deemed the most valuable player in the league each season.

The award was renamed in 2015 in honor of its 2009 winner, Landon Donovan

From 1996 to 2007, the award was known as the Honda MLS Most Valuable Player, for commercial purposes. From 2007 to 2014, the award was titled the Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player.

Players for D.C. United have won the award a record four times, while Kansas City and Los Angeles Galaxy players have won a second best three times. Carlos Valderrama won the award for the inaugural 1996 season. Kansas City's Preki is the only player to ever win twice, in 1997 and 2003.

On January 15, 2015, MLS renamed its MVP award in honor of Landon Donovan.^[1][2]

Winners

 

Carlos Valderrama won the inaugural award for the Tampa Bay Mutiny in 1996

 

Preki is the only two-time MVP winner.

 

Tony Meola is the only goalkeeper to win the MVP award.

 

In 2011, Dwayne De Rosario became the first Canadian player to win MVP.

 

Carlos Vela scored a record 34 goals during his 2019 MVP season.

Season	Player	Club	Other Finalists
1996	Carlos Valderrama	Tampa Bay Mutiny	Roy Lassiter, Preki
1997	Preki	Kansas City Wizards	Marco Etcheverry, Carlos Valderrama
1998	Marco Etcheverry	D.C. United	Cobi Jones, Peter Nowak
1999	Jason Kreis	Dallas Burn	Marco Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno
2000	Tony Meola	Kansas City Wizards	Mamadou Diallo, Clint Mathis
2001	Alex Pineda Chacón	Miami Fusion	Jeff Agoos, Diego Serna
2002	Carlos Ruíz	Los Angeles Galaxy	Mark Chung, Taylor Twellman
2003	Preki (2)	Kansas City Wizards	Ante Razov, John Spencer
2004	Amado Guevara	MetroStars	Joe Cannon, Jaime Moreno
2005	Taylor Twellman	New England Revolution	Dwayne De Rosario, Jaime Moreno
2006	Christian Gómez	D.C. United	Jeff Cunningham, Dwayne De Rosario
2007	Luciano Emilio	D.C. United	Juan Pablo Ángel, Cuauhtémoc Blanco
2008	Guillermo Barros Schelotto	Columbus Crew	Landon Donovan, Cuauhtémoc Blanco
2009	Landon Donovan	Los Angeles Galaxy	Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Cunningham
2010	David Ferreira^[3]	FC Dallas	Edson Buddle, Chris Wondolowski
2011	Dwayne De Rosario^[4]	D.C. United	Brad Davis, Brek Shea
2012	Chris Wondolowski^[5]	San Jose Earthquakes	Thierry Henry, Graham Zusi
2013	Mike Magee^[6]	Chicago Fire	Robbie Keane, Marco Di Vaio
2014	Robbie Keane^[7]	Los Angeles Galaxy	Lee Nguyen, Obafemi Martins
2015	Sebastian Giovinco^[8]	Toronto FC	Kei Kamara, Benny Feilhaber
2016	David Villa^[9]	New York City FC	Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sacha Kljestan
2017	Diego Valeri^[10]	Portland Timbers	David Villa, Nemanja Nikolić
2018	Josef Martínez^[11]	Atlanta United FC	Miguel Almirón, Zlatan Ibrahimović
2019	Carlos Vela^[12]	Los Angeles FC	Zlatan Ibrahimović, Josef Martínez
2020	Alejandro Pozuelo^[13]	Toronto FC	Andre Blake, Nicolás Lodeiro, Jordan Morris, Diego Rossi
2021	Carles Gil^[14]	New England Revolution	Hany Mukhtar, João Paulo, Dániel Sallói, Valentín Castellanos
2022	Hany Mukhtar^[15]	Nashville SC	Sebastián Driussi, Andre Blake
2023	Luciano Acosta^[16]	FC Cincinnati	Thiago Almada, Denis Bouanga

Wins by team

Club	Wins
D.C. United	4
Kansas City Wizards/Sporting KC	3
LA Galaxy	3
Dallas Burn/FC Dallas	2
New England Revolution	2
Toronto FC	2
Atlanta United FC	1
Chicago Fire	1
FC Cincinnati	1
Columbus Crew	1
Los Angeles FC	1
Miami Fusion	1
Nashville SC	1
New York City FC	1
NY/NJ MetroStars/New York Red Bulls	1
Portland Timbers	1
San Jose Earthquakes	1
Tampa Bay Mutiny	1

Wins by nationality

Nationality	Wins
United States	8
Argentina	4
Spain	3
Colombia	2
Honduras	2
Bolivia	1
Brazil	1
Canada	1
Germany	1
Guatemala	1
Ireland	1
Italy	1
Mexico	1
Venezuela	1

See also

• Best MLS Player ESPY Award

References

1. "Major League Soccer names Most Valuable Player award after Landon Donovan". Major League Soccer. January 16, 2015. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
2. McCarthy, Kyle (January 15, 2015). . Fox Sports. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
3. "FC Dallas attacker Ferreira voted 2010 Volkswagen MVP". Major League Soccer. November 19, 2010. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
4. Doyle, Matthew (November 18, 2011). "D.C. United's De Rosario voted Volkswagen MLS MVP". Major League Soccer. Retrieved November 18, 2011.
5. Borg, Simon (November 29, 2012). "San Jose's Wondolowski wins 2012 Volkswagen MLS MVP". Major League Soccer. Retrieved November 29, 2012.
6. Borg, Simon (December 5, 2013). "Chicago Fire forward Mike Magee voted 2013 Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player". Major League Soccer. Retrieved December 5, 2013.
7. "Robbie Keane named 2014 Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player". LA Galaxy. December 3, 2014. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
8. Molinaro, John (December 2, 2015). "TFC's Giovinco named Major League Soccer MVP". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved December 2, 2015.
9. Rodriguez, Alicia (December 6, 2016). "New York City FC forward David Villa wins 2016 Landon Donovan MLS MVP". Major League Soccer. Retrieved December 6, 2016.
10. Boehm, Charles (December 4, 2017). "Portland Timbers' Diego Valeri wins 2017 Landon Donovan MLS MVP award". Major League Soccer. Retrieved December 4, 2017.
11. Bogert, Tom (December 5, 2018). "Atlanta United's Josef Martinez wins 2018 Landon Donovan MLS MVP award". Major League Soccer. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
12. Rodriguez, Alicia (November 4, 2019). "Carlos Vela is 2019 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player". Major League Soccer. Retrieved November 4, 2019.
13. "Alejandro Pozuelo named 2020 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player". Major League Soccer. December 7, 2020. Retrieved December 7, 2020.
14. "New England Revolution's Carles Gil named 2021 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player". Major League Soccer. December 7, 2021. Retrieved December 7, 2021.
15. "Nashville SC's Hany Mukhtar named 2022 Landon Donovan MLS MVP". Major League Soccer. November 1, 2022. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
16. "FC Cincinnati's Luciano Acosta named 2023 Landon Donovan MLS MVP". Major League Soccer. November 27, 2023. Retrieved November 27, 2023.