Chelsea midfielder Christian Pulisic has been named the United States Player of the Year for 2021.

Pulisic received the USMNT Player of the Year award. This is the third time the 23-year-old midfielder has received it, after 2017 and 2019. The Chelsea midfielder was instrumental in the United States’ victory over Mexico to the CONCACAF Nations League title in the summer. 

And is the first American player to win the UEFA Champions League after doing it with the Blue Lions. Last season The awards spanning the last five years have gone to Pulisic in 2017, 2019 and 2021. While the other two have gone to Zach Steffen in 2018 and Weston McKenney in 2020.

Other accolades for 2021 go to the Young Player of the Year Ricardo Pepi, the Female Footballer of the Year Lindsay Horan and the Young Women’s Player of the Year from Tri. Nity Rodman.

Pulisic’s national team contributions also were timely and significant. He appeared in eight of the U.S.’s 22 matches in 2021, sitting out the Concacaf Gold Cup along with most of the rest of the program’s European contingent and then missing four of eight World Cup qualifiers with coronavirus and an ankle injury. But when he was there, he mattered.