Sporting Kansas City forward Daniel Salloi was voted MLS Player of the Week and was also selected to the MLS Team of the Week presented by Audi for a seventh time in 2021 after his two-goal performance in the club’s 3-1 road win last night at FC Dallas, Major League Soccer announced on Thursday.
Salloi earned the accolades for Week 28 of the 2021 Major League Soccer season following the fourth multi-goal match of his MLS regular season and postseason career. The Sporting KC Academy product strengthened his MLS MVP bid with a pair of sensational strikes, opening the scoring with a spectacular long-range goal in the 13th minute (watch) before bagging his brace with a left-footed blast in the 61st minute (watch) as Sporting improved to 10-0-3 in 2021 when Salloi scores.
Salloi, honored with MLS Player of the Week recognition for the first time in his six-year career, becomes the first Sporting player to be named MLS Player of the Week in 2021. The 25-year-old has 15 goals and six assists this year, the third most goal contributions in the league. His 15 goals also rank third best in MLS, two shy of Ola Kamara in the race for the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi with seven games remaining in each player’s regular season campaign.
Notably, Salloi’s 15 non-penalty goals are most in Major League Soccer, two more than any other player, and the Hungarian international is now on the cusp of breaking two records: most non-penalty goals by a Homegrown Player in a single season (16 set by Gyasi Zardes) in MLS history and most non-penalty goals by a Sporting KC player in a single season (16 set by Dom Dwyer).
With 15 goals in 25 appearances, Salloi currently sits fourth on the club’s single-season goal scoring chart and his 30 career MLS regular season goals are 10th most in team history.
The MLS Player of the Week is selected each week of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters comprises 75 percent of the vote, while a Twitter fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. Team of the Week presented by Audi is voted on by the MLSsoccer.com editorial staff.
Sporting KC All-Time MLS Players of the Week
- 2021: Daniel Salloi (Week 28)
- 2020: Alan Pulido (Week 15)
- 2019: Johnny Russell (Week 13)
- 2018: Tim Melia (Week 6) & Johnny Russell (Week 8)
- 2015: Paulo Nagamura (Week 24), Benny Feilhaber (Week 29) & Tim Melia (Week 31)
- 2014: Graham Zusi (Week 4) & Benny Feilhaber (Week 19)
- 2013: Graham Zusi (Week 10)
- 2011: Omar Bravo (Week 1) & Graham Zusi (Week 23)
- 2009: Josh Wolff (Week 5, Week 9 & Week 25)
- 2008: Claudio Lopez (Week 30)
- 2007: Eddie Johnson (Week 2, Week 8 & Week 9) & Scott Sealy (Week 24 & Week 29)
- 2006: Scott Sealy (Week 12), Davy Arnaud (Week 24), Josh Wolff (Week 27) & Jose Burciaga, Jr. (Week 28)
- 2005: Josh Wolff (Week 7 & Week 20)
- 2004: Davy Arnaud (Week 14)
- 2003: Chris Klein (Week 2 & Week 27), Preki (Week 9 & Week 12) & Igor Simutenkov (Week 15)
- 2002: Chris Klein (Week 4) & Tony Meola (Week 21)
- 2001: Chris Klein (Week 2) & Chris Brown (Week 3)
- 2000: Peter Vermes (Week 10) & Tony Meola (Week 15)
- 1999: Chris Klein (Week 19)
- 1998: Vitalis Takawira (Week 10)
- 1997: Preki (Week 12 & Week 14)
- 1996: Preki (Week 8) & Mark Chung (Week 12)
