Sporting Kansas City announced today the recipients of the 2024 Sporting Club Awards. Votes cast by Sporting players, fans and media determined the following award winners:
- Most Valuable Player presented by Audi: Jake Davis
- Offensive Player of the Year presented by Compass Minerals: Erik Thommy
- Defensive Player of the Year presented by The Baldwin Group (Brush Creek): Tim Melia
- Newcomer of the Year presented by El Jimador Tequila: Zorhan Bassong
- Goal of the Year presented by Parisi Coffee: Erik Thommy
- Save of the Year sponsored by Tito's Vodka: Tim Melia
Sporting Kansas City also selected award winners in the following categories:
- Golden Boot presented by Brummel Lawn & Landscape LLC: William Agada
- Neal and Jeanne Patterson Humanitarian of the Year presented by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City: Johnny Russell
- Sporting KC II Most Valuable Player presented by Central Bank: Sebastian Cruz
- Bob Gansler Academy Player of the Year presented by Children’s Mercy: Cielo Tschantret
- Sporting Club Network Member of the Year presented by Price Chopper: Sporting Arkansas
At age 22, Davis is the youngest Most Valuable Player in club history and the second Sporting KC Academy product to earn team MVP honors following Daniel Salloi in 2021. Across all competitions, Davis is second on the team in assists (eight) and third starts (30) while ranking seventh in MLS in tackles (73). Deployed as a right back or a central midfielder, Davis has 11 goal contributions this season, including three goals, after totaling just two goal contributions in his first three years with the team. Each of his three goals were superb in quality—a low drive from distance in a 3-1 win at Toronto FC on March 30, a long-range blast in a narrow loss at Austin FC on May 25, and a stunning individual effort in a 3-0 triumph over Orlando City SC on Aug. 24. Davis, who tallied three Open Cup assists in Sporting’s run to the tournament final, has hit regular season career-highs this year in appearances (27), starts (25) and minutes (2,229).
The recipient of Sporting’s Offensive Player of the Year and Goal of the Year awards, Thommy has enjoyed a standout season as an integral part of Sporting’s attack. The German playmaker is tied for second on the team with eight goals in all competitions—including a brilliant strike in the 2024 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final at LAFC on Sept. 25—while also adding five assists and a team-high 43 key passes in the regular season. Thommy ranks ninth in MLS in fouls suffered (56) and eighth in progressive carries (123), dribbles that advance the ball 10 or more yards closer to goal or into the penalty box.
Thommy was voted the Goal of the Year winner for his stunning right-footed volley in the 58th minute of Sporting’s historic home match against Inter Miami CF on April 13 at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. With a record-breaking crowd of 72,610 fans in attendance, Thommy latched onto a looping ball on the right side of the penalty area and hammered a pinpoint strike off the near post and into the net for his second goal of the game and his first multi-goal match since joining Kansas City in June 2022.
Agada, Sporting’s Golden Boot leader with one match remaining, has a team-leading 11 goals and 15 total goal contributions in all competitions. The Nigerian striker, who like Thommy joined Sporting in the summer of 2022, has eclipsed MLS career-highs in goals (nine) and assists (three) while also scoring in the U.S. Open Cup and Leagues Cup. Agada had three braces during the regular season—netting twice against the Portland Timbers on April 7, Real Salt Lake on June 19 and FC Dallas on July 7—to move into a tie for sixth in club history with six career multi-goal games. A persistent threat in the attacking third, Agada leads MLS in expected goals per 90 minutes (0.75), ranks third in non-penalty expected goals per 90 minutes (0.66), and places sixth in shots per 90 minutes (4.44).
Now in his 10th season with Sporting, Melia is named the club’s Defensive Player of the Year for the third time after taking the honor in 2018 and 2019 and earning team MVP accolades in 2017. The veteran goalkeeper made 33 appearances in all competitions—including three in Sporting’s run to the Open Cup Final—and totaled 78 saves in the regular season, his most since 2019. Melia also saved three of the five penalty kicks he faced in 2024 to take his career total to 18 penalty saves, second most in MLS regular season history.
Melia produced the Save of the Year winner in the 81st minute of Sporting’s away match at the Colorado Rapids on July 4. With the score tied at 1-1, Melia denied Colorado a near-certain goal with a stunning reflex stop to keep out a close-range header from Rapids striker Rafael Navarro.
Bassong, the club’s Newcomer of the Year, has logged 24 appearances in all competitions since arriving last winter. He played his first 17 matches for the club at left back before transitioning to a central midfield role in August. The 25-year-old has started in seven of the team’s last nine matches in all competitions, including a 105-minute outing against LAFC in the Open Cup Final on Sept. 25 in Los Angeles. Bassong’s impressive performances have resulted in his first call-up to the Canada Men’s National Team in nearly five years, as he has joined the Reds for an international friendly on Oct. 15 against Panama in his hometown of Toronto.
Sporting’s annual Humanitarian of the Year award is named after the late Sporting KC owner Neal Patterson and his wife Jeanne, both of whom passed away from cancer in 2017 after leaving a remarkable philanthropic impact on the Kansas City community. Russell, who nears the end of his seventh season with Sporting and his fourth as the club’s captain, receives Humanitarian of the Year recognition for the second time after first receiving the accolade in 2022. The Scottish forward regularly visited Children’s Mercy Hospital to provide encouragement to youths, visiting nearly 100 families throughout the season, and was slimed by kids as part of the hospital’s Camp Week. Russell takes a leadership role in welcoming Victory Project honorees—children fighting cancer and other life challenges—to training before each home match, presenting every honoree with a special custom jersey and greetings from the team. He was also the club’s Kick Childhood Cancer ambassador, welcoming honoree Daniel Diaz to the training facility and participating in a photoshoot to promote the KCC warm-up tops.
Cruz was named Sporting KC II’s Most Valuable Player after tallying five goals and a team-best five assists during the 2024 MLS NEXT Pro campaign. Capable of playing as a winger or midfielder, Cruz ranked second on the team in appearances (26), third in minutes (2,089) and third in key passes (46) as a consistent contributor under head coach Benny Feilhaber. A product of the Sporting KC Academy, Cruz had an excellent four-year college career at Cal State Fullerton from 2019-2022 before launching his professional journey with SKC II, where he has totaled 10 goals and seven assists in 48 matches across two MLS NEXT Pro seasons.
Tschantret was selected as the Bob Gansler Academy Player of the Year. The 18-year-old midfielder started in 14 of 22 MLS NEXT Pro appearances for SKC II, scoring a sublime goal in a 3-1 home win over St. Louis City 2 on July 21 and recording an assist a month earlier in a 4-3 home victory over Minnesota United 2. He completed 86 percent of his passes during his second season in MLS NEXT Pro, having debuted for SKC II in 2023. Tschantret, the son of Sporting KC Academy U-18 head coach Lee Tschantret, has spent four years in the club’s youth ranks. At the U-15 and U-17 levels, he competed in high-profile competitions including the Generation adidas Cup and the MLS NEXT Academy Playoffs. Last fall, he was part of the dominant Sporting KC U-19 side that won a United Premier Soccer League division title and advanced to the round of 16 of the UPSL Playoffs.
Sporting Arkansas was named the Sporting Club Network Member of the Year, welcoming over 100 new families to the club and launching a new U-20 academy team that began play in the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) this fall. In addition to offering free programming to local youth players and providing low-income children the opportunity to play soccer, Sporting Arkansas has strengthened its pathway to MLS NEXT with several of its youth players joining the Sporting KC Academy over the last few years.
Click here for a list of Sporting Kansas City’s all-time award winners.
