No it is not fellow St. John's Soccer Alum & team PR flack, Andreas Previati, also not CR7, neither are from or play for the USA. But it is Weston McKennie, and this is his first time being so honored, an award C7 will never get unless he becomes a citizen, so there's that.
Weston now has a quartet of years with the senior national team, and talk about playing at the highest of levels, Serie A, not bad. He has an upcoming game facing Fiorentina, they share an owner in Rocco Commisso with the NY Cosmos, so by that connection I pick Fiorentina to win. At just 22 the midfielder is the 4th youngest to take the award with the youngest being Christian Pulisic, yes he has LI ties, his dad is from here.
His 3rd year running as a finalist for this award, he now has this brass ring all to his own, only 26 have taken it since it began, we have met 15 of them but none of the last 5, the same year I graduated HS, 1984. Interestingly enough, he is just the 2nd player based in Italy to take this honor as Alexi Lalas did so in 1995, he is also the 2nd Texan to rope it in as Clint Dempsey has 3 of them 2007, 2011 & 2012.
McKennie stated " I want to thank everyone for this huge honor., It's been a journey, especially through these difficult times during the pandemic. Our fans have stuck with us throughout and we really appreciate it. Hopefully in 2021 we can have many more memories together."
He took an astounding 44% of the vote followed by Pulisic at 27, I no longer print who votes as I am excluded, just my thing to get back at them.
He had 29 games with a quartet of goals in Germany with Schalke and Juve in 2020. He was a fixture with Shalke as he was in 15 out of a possible 16 games and more than did his part in their successful relegation battle. Big news as he went to Juve in August, he was an immediate starter by ex-NYCFC player Andrea Pirlo as he was in the season opener just 3 weeks later. He has done quite well for himself, 13 games overall with 5 in the Champions League as he aided in his team reaching the Round of 16. His last 4 games with Juventus saw him score 2x with one assist. His 80' goal had him as just the 3rd American to do so in the league, he headed in the goal to touch off a 2-1 comeback win facing Torino Dec. 5. Again showing off his athleticism in the 3-0 Champions League victory over Barca 3 days later. His assist to Dybala got them going on their 3-1 win over Genoa, a busy and productive 8 days.
Covid put the kibosh on much USMNT action but he did get in a pair of games, named the MOTM v Wales, a great game to see so many younger players who are with huge clubs together for the first time. His last game was the thrashing of Panama just 4 days later.