2026 MLS End of Season Awards Ballot

It’s that time of year. Decision day has come and gone, the playoff matchups are set. It’s awards time. Here is our ballot at ASA.

Referee of the Year and Assistant Referee of the Year

We don’t really know much about these awards, so we talked to some referees we do know. Nominated for Referee of the Year were Jon Freemon, Rosendo Mendoza, and Rubiel Vazquez. Nominated for Assistant Referee of the Year were Ryan Graves, Jeremy Kieso, and Felisha Mariscal. 

The most common suggestion was that the Referee of the Year is Rubiel Vazquez, and the Assistant Referee of the Year is Jeremy Kieso. Both officials rarely are the center of disastrous video review decisions, and the best referee is one you don’t think about at all. 

Comeback Player of the Year

Most of the nominees for this award were players returning from serious knee injuries or achilles tendon ruptures, however we chose to vote this year for Eduard Löwen of the San Jose Earthquakes. The blurb provided by the league can be seen here: 

Eduard Löwen missed several games in the 2024 and 2025 seasons with St. Louis CITY SC to care for his wife, Ilona, who was battling brain cancer. After Ilona tragically passed away in March of this year, he returned to the pitch in April and was later traded to San Jose, where the Earthquakes are unbeaten in seven games since his arrival to the starting midfield; Löwen even earned Team of the Matchday honors in Matchday 29 after recording three goal contributions in a win over Portland.

Humanitarian of the Year

ASA’s ballot voted for Brad Stuver of Austin FC for his community efforts in Texas, that you can read below. Talarico Stuver 2032. 

Stuver has been an exemplary community-engaged athlete throughout his time in Austin. In 2022, he became the first-ever MLS player to be named a nominee for the ESPN Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award at the ESPYs (before being nominated for the award again in 2023). Stuver is a multiple-time finalist for MLS Humanitarian of the Year for his community-based advocacy and fundraising across the Central Texas region. Stuver is a regional project director for The Laundry Project, an organization which holds events to provide free laundry services and materials to low-income families. Stuver has organized multiple Laundry Project events annually since arriving in Central Texas and organized multiple supply drives to collect donations. He sits on the Board of Directors for the Equality Texas Foundation, a non-profit fighting to secure full equality for the LGBTQIA+ community in Texas.

Newcomer of the Year

One of the harder awards to vote for this season. Honorable mentions to RSL draftee Sergi Solans, Houston Dynamo transferee Guilherme, and San Jose’s Timo Werner but our vote goes to Antoine Griezmann. Griezmann has put up almost MVP caliber numbers since joining after the World Cup. +0.16 g+ per 96, 20 goals and assists in 1800 minutes. Griezmann took over a floundering Orlando side that, don’t forget, got obliterated so thoroughly through five matches that Oscar Pareja got resig-fired.

Young Player of the Year

Cavan Sullivan is HIM. Read Catalina Bush’s piece for Scouted. +0.14 g+ per 96 at just barely 17 years old. If he had played the entire season instead of being inexplicably ignored by Bradley Carnell, he would unironically be an MVP candidate. Peroxide blonde buzzcut, winding up Mexicans, scoring vs Toronto on the final day and Philly fans screaming “We Want Cavan”. Honorable mentions to Julian Hall and Peyton Miller. 

Goalkeeper of the Year

Matt Turner put up the highest g+ of any goalkeeper in the ASA dataset at nearly 16 goals prevented on the 60 xG he faced, a truly incredible season. Hilariously, Brian Schwake put up the second best shot stopping season ever at 13.6 fewer goals conceded than expected. However, Schwake did this on a measly 38 post shot expected goals faced. His 0.64 G/PSxG is the best in the dataset among starters, with the only other goalkeeper in the dataset below 0.70 being 2017 Tim Melia. Brian Schwake got our vote.

Defender of the Year

If I could give defender of the year to a group, it would go to the triumvirate of Brian Schwake, Jeisson Palacios, and Maxwell Woledzi. The Nashville crew has been incredible. But it’s not, it’s an individual award, and I think Schwake has taken up a lot of the air on that group’s awesomeness. Someone who I think is not splitting credit is Vancouver fullback Tate Johnson. Johnson is second by net defensive g+ (the g+ gained from interrupting actions minus the amount of g+ allowed through your zones of responsibility) and Vancouver had the best xGA in the league. If we look at g+ difference by zones and limit it to the left back quadrant of the pitch, Vancouver have the best g+ difference in the league. Our vote goes to Tate Johnson.

Coach of the Year

BJ Callaghan. Points record, awesome to watch team. Much deserved. Honorable mentions to Eric Quill, Jesper Sorensen, Marko Mitrovic, Yoann Damet and Robin Fraser.

Most Valuable Player

I would have loved for this to have been a debate, but it’s not. The 2026 MLS MVP is Lionel Messi, end of discussion. By g+, the gap between Messi and the second highest g+ outfielder is by far the largest of any season we have in the database. So much so that the gap itself would be the g+ MVP in every single season bar Messi last season, and Carlos Vela in 2019. Last season, Messi was merely double the total g+ of his next best competitor in Denis Bouanga. This season, he’s nearly four times the next highest g+ outfielder. Nuts.

Best XI

As a reminder, our best XI is voted entirely by total net g+ accrued over the season. So while Brian Schwake was our goalkeeper of the year award, Matt Turner gets the Best XI nod.