Could a Hungarian athlete become ‘Most Valued Player Of the Year’ in the US?

Since 2000, Major League Soccer players can receive the Landon Donovan Most Valued Player Award and the Comeback Player of the Year Award for their outstanding performance. This year, a Hungarian football player was named a finalist for these prestigious US awards.

The Award

MLS or Major League Soccer is a men’s professional football (soccer) league organised by the United States Soccer Federation. It is considered the biggest accolade in sport in the United States. The winners of the Landon Donovan MVP and Comeback Player of the Year Awards are determined by media votes. MLS players and club management represent the best of the best in the football scene.

This year, the forward striker of the Sporting Kansas City club, a Hungarian-born soccer player, Dániel Sallói is among the finalists. He is in the running for both two awards, the club’s website announced.

Dániel Sallói

The Hungarian soccer player was born in Siófok and raised in Budapest. His soccer career started early and since then he has proved his talent at numerous occasions.

Dániel Sallói moved to the United States as an exchange student in 2014 and joined the U-18s of the Sporting KC Academy where he immediately stood out by scoring a team-high 21 goals in just 28 appearances, Sporting KC writes.

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Following that, Sporting KC signed Dániel Sallói as the fourth Homegrown Player in the club’s history in 2016. He has been borrowed by the Hungarian team a couple of times and the 25-year-old soccer player excelled in both teams, the site reported.

According to Sporting KC, Dániel is a fourth-generation professional soccer player. His father became quite known in the Hungarian and Israel teams for scoring 130 goals during his 16-year career.

As reported by Hellómagyar, Dániel Sallói secured 16 goals and 8 goal assists in the 34-match season. Due to his outstanding performance, he reached 7th place on the goal table and his team became 3rd in the western group.

The Finalists

According to Sporting KC, the following players are the finalists for the awards:

2021 Landon Donovan MLS MVP Finalists

• Dániel Sallói (Sporting Kansas City)
• Valentin Castellanos (New York City FC)
• Carles Gil (New England Revolution)
• Hany Mukhtar (Nashville SC)
• Joao Paulo (Seattle Sounders FC)

2021 MLS Comeback Player of the Year Finalists

• Dániel Sallói (Sporting Kansas City)
• Carles Gil (New England Revolution)
• Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández (LA Galaxy)

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Source: hellomagyar.hu, sportingkc.com