Seven Current Players, Andonovski Named Finalists for Year End Awards

While the sting from Sunday’s loss to Gotham FC still hasn’t gone away for most Kansas City Current fans, that doesn’t mean the regular season that the Current had this year should be ignored. The Current set single season league records for points, wins, shutouts, and fewest goals against. KC’s dominance of the regular season is reflected in the NWSL’s nominees for their year end awards, which were announced yesterday. Eight members of the Current are up for awards, seven players and head coach Vlatko Andonovski. Three of the awards, Defender of the Year, Midfielder of the Year, and MVP each have two Current players up for the award. No other team in the league had more than three nominated for the awards.

Andonovski is one of three finalists for coach of the year along with the Washington Spirit’s Adrian Gonzalez and Racing Louisville’s Beverly Yanez. Andonovski should be the clear front runner for this award given the Current’s domination of the regular season setting the league records above, going 21-3-2 for 65 points, and winning the NWSL Shield by 21 points over second place Washington. Gonzalez lead the Spirit to a second place finish with a 12-6-8 record. Yanez meanwhile led Louisville to the first playoff appearance in their club’s history, finishing seventh in the league with a 10-9-7 record.

Kansas City has two players up for the league’s Defender of the Year award, Izzy Rodriguez and Kayla Sharples. Rodriguez was the lone KC player to appear in all 26 of their league games in 2026, starting 22 of them. She was tied for the league lead in assists for the season with six. Sharples played 24 of the Current’s 26 games, 23 of them starts, anchoring the center of defense, especially after Alana Cook went down with injury. After that she had three different center back partners in Elizabeth Ball, Hailie Mace, and Gabrielle Robinson without any drop in style or play for Sharples. The other nominees are Jordyn Bugg of the Seattle Reign, Tara McKeown of Washington, and Avery Patterson of the Houston Dash.

Like the Defender of the Year ballot, the Midfield of the Year also has two Kansas City players among the nominees in Debinha and Claire Hutton. Debinha was an early season MVP candidate with her strong start to the season, but an injury set her back. She still played in 22 games, starting 17 adding eight goals and an assist for the Current. Hutton meanwhile continued her rise through the ranks to becoming one of the best midfielders in the league at just 19 years old. She played in 25 of the Current’s games, starting 22 of them adding two assists as a more defensive minded midfielder for KC. The other nominees are Kenza Dali of the San Diego Wave, Manaka Matsukubo of the North Carolina Courage, and Olivia Moultrie of the Portland Thorns.

Goalkeeper of the Year has Lorena nominated for the award from KC. The Brazilian started 24 of the 26 games, recording 19 wins and a goals against average of just .54. She also set the league record for shutouts in a single season with 14. Also nominated for the award was Gotham FC’s Ann-Katrin Berger and Seattle’s Claudia Dickey.

The one award that KC didn’t have any player nominated for was Rookie of the Year where Maddie Dahlien of Seattle, Lilly Reale of Gotham, and Riley Tiernan of Angel City are the nominees for the award.

The final award, the league’s MVP also has two Current players nominated for it with Temwa Chawinga and Bia Zaneratto. Chawinga, going for her second straight MVP award has already won her second consecutive Golden Boot, leading the league with 15 goals to go along with three assists in 23 games this season. Her teammate, Zaneratto had seven goals and three assists in 24 games for the Current this season. The will face stiff competition form Delphine Cascarino of San Diego, Esther Gonzalez of Gotham, and the previously mentioned Matsukubo of North Carolina as the other finalists for the award.

Voting for these awards as well as the league’s Best XI and Second XI is made up of a player vote (40%), owners, GMs, coaches (25%), media (25%) and fans (10%) to decide who the winners are. The winners will be announced live during the league’s 2025 NWSL Awards, presented by AT&T.