Former Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper garners CITY SC’s first MLS Year-End Award honor
St. Louis CITY SC captain Roman Bürki garnered the overwhelming vote of the MLS Players, Club and Media to be named the 2023 Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, the league announced. Bürki is the first goalkeeper to win the award while playing for an expansion club in its inaugural MLS season since Chicago Fire FC’s Zach Thornton won it in 1998. He is the first-ever St. Louis CITY SC player to earn an individual MLS Year-End Award honor.
Bürki led the league in goals prevented at 11.9 per OPTA, which is a stat that subtracts the number of goals a GK has conceded from the number of goals a GK would be expected to conced based on the quality of the shots they faced. The Swiss goalkeeper finished 3.35 better than San Jose’s Daniel, who finished with 8.65 goals prevented in just 22 games played. New England’s Petrovic (6.19 goals prevented/22 games), Charlotte’s Kahlina (5.83 goals prevented/24 games played) and Dallas’s Paes (4.90 goals prevented/30 games played) rounded out the top five.
Bürki’s 17 wins is the most of any goalkeeper in their first MLS season during the post-shootout era and is tied with Mark Dodd and Mark Dougherty (both in 1996) for the most wins including the shootout era. The Switzerland international is the first goalkeeper to produce at least 120 saves and eight clean sheets in a season since Vito Mannone in 2019, and he has the second highest save percentage of all goalkeepers to keep at least eight clean sheets this season.
The Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, which honors the best goalkeeper in MLS during the 2023 regular season, was voted on by MLS club technical staff, media, and current MLS players. Below is a breakdown of the voting results, with finalists Roman Celentano (FC Cincinnati) and Pedro Gallese (Orlando City SC) finishing tied for second in the voting:
A full list of previous Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award winners can be found below:
