For only the second time in club history, a member of the New England Revolution is the MVP of Major League Soccer.
On Tuesday, the league named Revolution midfielder Carles Gil as the 2021 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player. The announcement came on the heels of a season in which Gil led the league with 18 assists — including eight game-winning dimes — as well as created 130 chances for his team and scored four goals on his own. The Revolution finished with 73 points on the regular season, the most in MLS history.
Speaking to the press at Gillette Stadium, Gil got emotional when speaking about his teammates.
“Thank you, because you help me a lot,” he said. “Thank you because it’s a pleasure for me to train and play with you every day. You make the difference for winning this trophy for sure, so thank you so much.”
Taylor Twellman, the only prior Revolution player to earn MVP honors, said the quality displayed throughout the league week in and week out is at an all-time high.
“Which also means it’s more impressive that one player was so special, so influential and head and shoulders above any other player in MLS in 2021,” he said. “And that player dominated games like very few players in this league have done so before. But it also happened for a Revolution team that orchestrated the greatest regular season in MLS history. He was the maestro. He was the one why all of us are here celebrating today.”
Gil’s MVP award caps off an impressive season for the Revolution. The team also had the MLS Coach of the Year in Bruce Arena and Goalkeeper of the Year in Matt Turner, joining the 2000 Kansas City Wizards as the only teams in MLS history to have the end-of-season award hat trick.
It also follows Gil being named the 2021 Comeback Player of Year after he missed most of 2020 with a bone spur.
New England Revolution president Brian Bilello said that Gil’s accomplishments have been recognized by fans across New England sports.
“We’ve seen real gains, I think any of you who are New Englanders in the room would agree, the club itself has really generated some buzz over these last few season,” he said. “And Carles’ accomplishments have been recognized not by soccer fans, but by sports fans across New England. And without a doubt, his accomplishments are being recognized by soccer fans across North America with this MVP award.”
Before presenting Gil with the award, Arena compared Gil to the award’s namesake, Landon Donovan.
“I had the honor to coach Landon. He’s widely considered the greatest player in the history of U.S. soccer and MLS and I can say Carles is in his class,” Arena said. “And let me tell you, that is saying a lot.”
While the award caps off a special season for the Revolution, it comes after the club fell short of its goal of capturing its first-ever MLS Cup after the team fell to New York City FC in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.
For Gil, he’s still treasuring the team’s accomplishments. But he also has an eye on what the Revolution can do next year.
“We realized after the 2020 season that we’re a championship-caliber team, we’re a great team,” he said. “We showed that this regular season, where there were more games. And the loss the other night will help motivate us going into next season.”
