Toronto FC’s Spanish midfielder Álex Pozuelo was voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the 2020 season of the North American Soccer League (MLS) ahead of Uruguayans Diego Rossi and Nico Lodeiro.
“This award means a lot to me, I still don’t believe it,” Pozuelo said in a press video conference on Monday.
«I am a very normal person. To be the best player in MLS, such a great league and with so much impact, I feel very proud “, acknowledged the midfielder, who happens in the record of this award to the Mexican Carlos Vela (2019), the Venezuelan Josef Martínez (2018) and the Argentine Diego Valeri (2017).
Pozuelo received 35.35% of the votes in this election, in which players, team members and journalists participate, MLS detailed Monday in a statement.
Young forward Diego Rossi (Los Angeles FC), the tournament’s top scorer with 14 goals in 19 games, obtained 17.80% of the votes and playmaker Nico Lodeiro (Seattle Sounders) 10.58%.
In 23 games this season, Pozuelo added nine goals and 10 assists, the best combined record in MLS, and led in chances created (70) and goals to win games (5).
In his second season at Toronto FC, the 29-year-old midfielder led the Canadian franchise to second place in the Eastern conference in the regular season.
In the playoffs, however, Toronto FC surprisingly fell 1-0 to rookie Nashville SC in the first round. The game was played in East Hartford (Connecticut), where Toronto FC had to move due to travel restrictions between Canada and the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were left with a bitter taste because we had high hopes of reaching the final,” Pozuelo recalled. “If we had played in Toronto, in our field, it would have been very different, but this year things were like that and we have to adapt. I hope that next year we will be fighting again to be at the top ».
– Following in the footsteps of Giovinco –
Pozuelo is the second Spanish footballer to be named MLS MVP after David Villa (New York City FC) in 2016 and also the second Toronto FC member to lift the award, after Italy’s Sebastian Giovinco in 2015.
Trained in the lower categories of Betis, Pozuelo also played for Swansea (Wales), Rayo Vallecano (Spain) and Genk (Belgium) before landing in the 2019 season at Toronto FC a few weeks after the departure of Giovinco, a former player Juventus and the Italian team.
«I came as a relief from Giovinco and everyone asked me if I was under pressure to play in that situation. But I believe in myself, I know I can play well, “said the Spaniard.
In his first campaign, the midfielder scored 12 goals and 12 assists in 30 games helping Toronto FC reach the MLS final, in which they lost to the Seattle Sounders.
«As a group this year has been very difficult but individually it has been better. It has been a little easier for me because I already knew the rivals and the fields, “said Pozuelo.
“Since I arrived, the MLS surprised me a lot and always for the better (…) Many players from Spain that I know want to come to MLS but every day it will be more difficult,” said the midfielder who recognized, however, that a call of the Spanish team “is quite far.”
“I have not come to think of the national team,” he said. “What I think about is to go ahead and enjoy the moment.”