United States men’s national team members Christian Pulisic and Ricard Pepi were named the 2021 U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year and Young Male Player of the Year, respectively, on Saturday.
For Pulisic, this is his third time winning this award, with the other two coming in 2017 and 2019. He becomes just the fourth player to pull off the feat, along with Clint Dempsey (2007, 2011, 2012), Landon Donovan (2003, 2004, 2009, 2010) and Kasey Keller (1997, 1999, 2005). He’s the youngest of the group at 23 years old.
Pepi, 18, secured his honors after breaking out at both the USMNT and MLS levels. He helped spark a historic 4-1 comeback victory for the U.S. in his national-team debut in September as well as earned the MLS Young Player of the Year award after making career-high 24 starts for FC Dallas this season. Pepi finished as the MLS’ leading American scorer with 13 goals.
This was the first year in which fans were able to vote for both awards, weighted at 15 percent of the vote total. Pulisic took 31 percent of the overall total for Player of the Year, while Pepi earned 60 percent of the overall vote for Young Male Player of the Year.
(Photo: John Dorton / ISI Photos / Getty Images)
