First-ever MLS Year-End Award winner CITY SC is the former goalie of Borussia Dortmund.
The league announced that Roman Bürki, the captain of St. Louis CITY SC, was named the 2023 Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year after receiving a resounding vote from the MLS Players, Club, and Media. Since Zach Thornton of Chicago Fire FC won it in 1998, Bürki is the first goalkeeper to win the award while playing for an expansion team in its first MLS season. He is the first player to ever win an individual MLS Year-End Award while playing for St. Louis CITY SC.
According to OPTA, a statistic that deducts the number of goals a goalkeeper has given up from the number of goals a goalkeeper would be expected to give up given the caliber of shots they have faced, Bürki led the league in goals prevented with 11.9. With just 22 games played, Daniel of San Jose finished with 8.65 goals prevented, 3.35 goals better than the Swiss goalkeeper. The next three players in the top five were Petrovic of New England (6.19 goals prevented/22 games), Kahlina of Charlotte (5.83 goals prevented/24 games), and Paes of Dallas (4.90 goals prevented/30 games).
With 17 victories, Bürki is tied with Mark Dodd and Mark Dougherty (both from 1996) for the most victories including the shootout era. This makes him the most successful goalie in their first MLS season following the shootout era. The Switzerland international has the second-highest save percentage of all goalkeepers to keep at least eight clean sheets this season. He is the first goalie to record at least 120 saves and eight clean sheets in a season since Vito Mannone in 2019.
Voting for the Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year took place among current MLS players, media, and MLS club technical staff. The award recognizes the best goalkeeper in the league during the 2023 regular season. The voting results are broken down below. Pedro Gallese of Orlando City SC and Roman Celentano of FC Cincinnati tied for second place.
Below is a complete list of past recipients of the Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award:
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