NWSL End of Season Award Guesses

Taylor Vincent
Taylor Vincent, Resident NWSL ExpertNovember 07, 2024
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The first round of voting for NWSL End-of-Season Awards has officially opened. As a reminder, the individual awards up for grab are Golden Boot, Most Valuable Player, Rookie of the Year, Midfielder of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, Coach of the Year, and a spot on the Best XI for 2024. Each of these comes along with a $5,000 bonus as per the current collective bargaining agreement (CBA). 

Under the new CBA, which hasn’t been fully released yet, all end-of-season competition bonuses will double their current rate ($5k) in 2027 up to $10k for Best XI, Rookie of the Year, Midfielder of the Year, Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year and the NWSL’s Golden Boot. Also doubling is the fiscal awards to the NWSL Shield and Championship Winners. The NWSL MVP award will be quadrupling up to $20k. 

The initial round is used to create a final list of nominees for the final round of voting. The breakdown for the first round is Players (50%), Boards/GM's/Head Coaches (25%), Media (25%), while the final round of voting uses a weighted scale of players (40%), Boards/GMs/Coaches (25%), Media (25%) and Fans (10%). In 2023, the MVP and Defender of the Year awards had five players on their shortlist while all of the other awards had three nominees for voting. 

For reference, here are the monthly Best XI, Player of the Month, and Rookie of the Month winners from March until September. Voting for October’s awards concluded on Monday and should be announced soon:

Golden Boot Winner: Temwa Chawinga

The Golden Boot is the only individual award which requires no voting. It is earned by the NWSL’s highest goalscorer. Temwa Chawinga not only led the league with 20 goals scored, she also set an NWSL Regular Season record, surpassing Sam Kerr’s previous record of 18 goals set in 2019. Fun fact: Chawinga scored as many goals as Houston did as a team. All the while Chawinga also became the first player to score against every active team in a single season. 


NWSL Regular Season Top Goalscorers List

Most Valuable Player: Temwa Chawinga

Sam Kerr’s record breaking 2019 season was the last time where the NWSL MVP and Golden Boot winner were the same person, that being said, of the ten regular seasons that the NWSL has had, only four have not had the golden boot winner not taking home the MVP trophy. [See Golden Boot section for more info on said incredible season]

Remaining Contract: 1 year thru 2025

Honorable Mentions: Barbra Banda, Trinity Rodman

NWSL MVP History List

Midfielder of the Year: Lo’eau LaBonta

LaBonta, a ten-year veteran of the league, was a four–time Best XI of the Month this season. She scored six regular season goals and one assist, with 8 goal scoring actions and 52 shot creating actions. In the NWSL Summer Cup she had an additional two goals and two assists. She also had 35 interceptions as well as 159 possessions won and an impressive 80% tackle success rate. 

Remaining Contract: 1 year thru 2025

Honorable Mentions: Croix Bethune, Taylor Flint

Defender of the Year: Kaleigh Kurtz

One Ironwoman season—playing every single regular season minute—is impressive. Kurtz earning three, back to back to back, is honestly just a ridiculous amount of performing at a high level and there’s also the fitness (midweek games are so much fun) and lack of injury part. Throughout the season Kurtz averaged an 87% passing accuracy and led the league in pass attempts with 2065. On the Courage backline she had 121 clearances, 21 interceptions, and 115 possessions won. Extra bonus: She had a game-winning goal against Utah in May. 

Remaining Contract: 1 year thru 2025

Honorable Mention: Abby Dahlkemper

NWSL Defender of the Year History List

Goalkeeper of the Year: Anna Moorhouse

Moorhouse started all 26 matches for Orlando only conceding 20 goals across those matches while having an expected xG over 30. She led the league in save percentage (81%) and clean sheets (13) in goalkeepers with at least 10 starts. She also had the second most saves on the season with 87 and goals conceded (Ann-Katrin Berger conceded only 16 goals but also started in four less matches). 

Remaining Contract: 1 year thru 2025

Honorable Mention: Ann-Katrin Berger, Mandy Haught

NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year History List

Rookie of the Year: Croix Bethune 

Bethune was selected third overall in the 2024 Collegiate Draft by the Washington Spirit, and her impact on the pitch for the Spirit was felt immediately. She earned three straight Rookie of the Month awards for her performances on the pitch, which included assisting three goals in the May matchup against Chicago and then later in the month breaking the rookie assist record. After coming back from the Olympic break, Bethune earned her tenth assist, tying the league record for assists in a season set by Tobin Heath back in 2016—she also had scored five goals for the Spirit by this point. In an unfortunate turn, just a few days later she tore her meniscus and joined the league’s Season Ending Injury list. Regardless of her shortened season, Bethune’s impact was Rookie of the Year worthy. 

Remaining Contract: 2 years thru 2026, plus 2027 Club Option

Honorable mentions: Claire Hutton, Hal Hershfelt

NWSL Rookie of the Year History List

Coach of the Year: Seb Hines

Hines became the interim head coach of the pride midway through the 2022 season, and upon the season sending signed a multi-year deal keeping him with the Pride without the ‘interim’ title ahead of his Head Coach title. 2023 the Pride narrowly missed the cutoff line for the six-team playoffs, tying on points with the fifth and sixth placed teams but a two goal differential making the difference. After starting the 2024 season off with three draws, the Pride went on an eight match winning streak, and ended up keeping their undefeated run until Matchday 24 of 26. After hopping into the top three in the table after matchday 7, Orlando proceeded to stay in the top two of the table for the remainder of the year. The Pride clinched their first ever NWSL Shield after a win on Matchday 23 against the Washington Spirit. His impressive performance earned Hines a multi-year contract extension keeping him in Orlando through the 2026 NWSL season, with an option for 2027.


NWSL Table throughout the season: agale137 (x/Twitter)

 

RELATED:

NWSL MVP List


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