Matt Turner named 2021 Allstate MLS Goalkeeper of the Year

On Monday, New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner was named 2021 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.

Turner had a career year for the Revs. In 2021, he tallied 17 wins which is a new club record along with a 1.25 goals against average and five shutouts.

The Revolution goalkeeper was the clear winner as he received 43.6 percent of the total vote with Andre Blake coming in second with 10.43 percent.

“It means a lot,” Turner said. “It’s definitely something that I’ve had on my radar as a goal, as a box to check if you will, for a long time. I’ve never really been one to win individual awards. I think I said that in my Tweet, but I really do mean that. All throughout growing up when I was getting into soccer, I always seemed to come in second place in these types of voting things, so I don’t feel like this is something that gives me validity, but it certainly is a nice award and one that I’m really proud to have accomplished.”

Turner also had success on the international level earning 12 caps so far this year and boasts a 9-1-2 record with eight shut outs. He was also named the top goalkeeper of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

It has been quite the journey for Turner when you look at just how far he has come. He was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2016 out of Fairfield University. He started playing goalkeeper just two years prior.

Still, Turner isn’t looking at the big picture of what winning this award means and the journey that he has had as a soccer player.

“I’ll take my time to kind of go through this big picture in a few weeks’ time,” he said. “My focus right now is completely on the playoffs and getting through this playoff run and doing what we were setting out to do as a team, which is to host MLS Cup and hopefully win MLS Cup at Gillette Stadium. Big picture things I’ll take my time in the offseason to sort of look back on this year and take it all in and soak it all in and really feel how far I’ve come in my journey and then from there, it’s on to 2022. In this game you don’t really have a lot of time to think about success and sort of revel in it. You just got to move forward and accept it for what it is whether good or bad and move forward and learn from it and grow and keep getting better.”

Turner becomes the first Revolution player to win the award.