Tampa Bay Mutiny 's Steve Ralston was the inaugural winner in 1996In 2001, MetroStar 's Rodrigo Faria became the first non-American player to win the award In 2010, D.C. United 's Andy Najar became the first homegrown player to win the award In 2020, Los Angeles FC 's Diego Rossi became the first player to win it under the under 22 format MLS Young Player of the Year Award (known as the Rookie of the Year Award from 1996 to 2019) is an annual award given to the top player in Major League Soccer under the age of 22.
The award was initially awarded to a rookie , or a player who no prior professional experience, usually to players that had previously played in MLS youth team academies or played college soccer . This practice is fairly common in other American sports leagues, such as the MLB Rookie of the Year (baseball), NASCAR Rookie of the Year (motorsports), NFL Rookie of the Year Award (American football), the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy (basketball), and the Calder Memorial Trophy (ice hockey).
In 2020, MLS replaced the Rookie of the Year Award with the MLS Young Player of the Year Award, given to the best player in the league aged 22 and under, regardless of prior professional playing experience.[ 1]
Winners
Wins by playing position
Position Winners
Defender 9
Forward 9
Midfielder 10
Goalkeeper 0
Wins by team
Team Winners
Chicago Fire 3
FC Dallas 3
Colorado Rapids 2
D.C. United 2
Los Angeles Galaxy 2
New England Revolution 2
Tampa Bay Mutiny 2
Atlanta United FC 2
Real Salt Lake 2
Orlando City SC 2
Chivas USA 1
Columbus Crew 1
MetroStars 1
Miami Fusion 1
Seattle Sounders FC 1
Sporting Kansas City 1
Toronto FC 1
Los Angeles FC 1
Diego Rossi
Ricardo Pepi
Thiago Almada
United States
Canada
Brazil
Germany
Honduras
Jamaica