Winners revealed in Orlando City UK’s 2023 end-of-season awards

/ Taylor Williams

This past week, we asked the Orlando City SC Twittersphere to select their Orlando City SC Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year for 2023 as part of our annual Orlando City UK end-of-season awards.

A public vote designed to recognise the standout Orlando City SC players in our highly impressive, yet agonisingly unfruitful 2023 campaign, we can now proudly reveal the winners as voted by you!

We had 695 individual votes cast across our three awards categories on Twitter – the most votes we’ve ever received!

We want to say thanks to each and every one of you for getting involved.

So without any further ado, here are your Orlando City UK 2023 end-of-season award winners!

2023 Orlando City UK Player of the Year

2018 winner: Yoshimar Yotún

2019 winner: Nani

2020 winner: Pedro Gallese

2021 winner: Pedro Gallese

2022 winner: Facundo Torres

With 54% of the vote, longtime Lion Robin Jansson is the deserved winner of Orlando City UK’s ‘Player of the Year’ honour.

Quite simply the best defender in Orlando City SC history, the signing of Jansson from AIK in March 2019 undoubtedly coincided with an upturn in City’s fortunes on the pitch in Major League Soccer.

The first ever defender to win across any category in Orlando City UK’s end-of-season awards, this tells you all you need to know about “The Viking” and his professionalism, leadership, and never-say-die attitude this year.

A veteran of 134 MLS regular season appearances for Orlando City SC, the once capped Swedish international recently turned 32-years-old on November 15.

They say that as you grow older, you grow wiser, and while Robin Jansson has always been a dependable rock solid presence in front of Pedro Gallese, his game scaled new heights in 2023.

But why was Robin Jansson‘s fifth full season as an Orlando City SC player his most impressive campaign of all?

Well, for starters, it was Jansson’s first City campaign where he played in all 34 MLS regular season games for the Lions, plus all three games in our 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs run too.

Starting 31 of the Lions’ 34 regular season fixtures, Jansson was part of a City defence that conceded just 39 goals, by far the fewest amount of goals we’ve conceded in a complete 34-game Major League Soccer regular season.

While centre back partner Antônio Carlos unfortunately suffered with injury in 2023, Robin Jansson was the constant presence at the heart of Orlando City SC‘s defence, tallying 3,180 minutes across 37 MLS games combining the regular season and post-season.

After Antônio Carlos‘ injury at Inter Miami in the 2023 Leagues Cup, Jansson helped guide Rodrigo Schlegel alongside him with the pair starting as centre halves for a sustained 13 games prior to Schlegel’s red card against Columbus Crew.

Before this untimely moment of madness, Schlegel and Jansson had actually helped Orlando City SC earn five clean sheets from six games leading up to our painful Eastern Conference Semi-Final elimination – forming the bedrock behind what many thought could be the season to go all the way and win MLS Cup.

While our dream wasn’t to be, we thoroughly enjoyed all of Jansson’s incredibly accurate raking upfield passes from deep, his immaculate reading of the game, and those surgically precise last ditch tackles that he’s forged a successful MLS career upon.

Harshly not named as a 2023 MLS Defender of the Year finalist, an accolade won in the end by FC Cincinnati’s Matt Miazga, we hope that winning our 2023 Orlando City UK Player of the Year honour serves as some form of consolation.

And yes, we saw you out there rooting for Jansson all season long, Matt Doyle, so respect!

Many congratulations on being our well-deserved 2023 Orlando City UK Player of the Year, Robin Jansson.

Nashville SC 0 Orlando City SC 1 – Highlights – November 7, 2023 (Credit: Major League Soccer)

2023 Orlando City UK Young Player of the Year

2018 winner: Chris Mueller

2019 winner: Benji Michel

2020 winner: Daryl Dike

2021 winner: Daryl Dike

2022 winner: Facundo Torres

Unsurprisingly, your Orlando City UK ‘Young Player of the Year’ for 2023 is Duncan McGuire with 69% of the vote.

Enjoying a rookie season for the ages, nobody, nor McGuire himself could’ve foreseen 13 Major League Soccer goals being scored so early into his professional career.

A debut season scoring tally only surpassed by Cyle Larin who bagged an outstanding 17 goals back in 2015, Duncan McGuire‘s 2023 was so good that the Orlando City SC Front Office decided to part ways with Designated Player Ercan Kara midway through the campaign back on September 2.

Unseating a #9 Designated Player during your first ever season as a pro rarely happens in MLS, such was the fast-track nature of McGuire’s meteoric rise.

Grabbing his first City goal on his first City start and MLS debut away at D.C. United back on March 11, Oscar Pareja‘s faith in the 22-year-old was immediately repaid.

It was after Duncan McGuire‘s next goal, a jubilant 88th minute game winner away at Adrian Heath’s Minnesota United (1-2) on April 15, that you could tell our #13 was a player with a natural instinct for goalscoring.

A goal scored at the MLS venue closest to his family home in Omaha, Nebraska, his loved ones watched McGuire snatch this game winner firsthand at Allianz Field.

It’s fair to say that after this, McGuire didn’t look back, grasping his big opportunity as an MLS starter with 11 more goals in the regular season, plus two strikes in the group stage of the 2023 Leagues Cup.

Of all of Duncan McGuire‘s rookie season goals, three more stand out.

Firstly, his 92nd minute equaliser that sealed City’s two-goal comeback at Columbus Crew (2-2) back on May 13.

Looking back, this was the goal that ultimately turned then under pressure Oscar Pareja and Orlando City SC‘s 2023 fortunes around, getting us out of jail just one game after our bitterly disappointing 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup elimination at Charlotte FC, embarrassingly failing to defend our 2022 title at the first hurdle.

After Duncan McGuire rescued this unlikely 2-2 draw, the rookie forward’s then fourth goal of the season heralded the start of a timely personal hot streak and by extension, improved team performances and consistent results.

Secondly, there was McGuire’s game winning goal at Atlanta United (1-2), only our second ever win in Georgia and our first in front of a packed house with our other victory (1-3 in August 2020) taking place behind closed doors due to COVID.

Racing away from the centre back duo of Juan José Purata and Luis Abram, McGuire remained ice cool to simply slide the game winner beyond Brad Guzan who powerlessly performed his familiar “stuck in the mud” routine in goal – you know the one!

Thirdly, there was Duncan McGuire‘s best goal of 2023 and most probably Orlando City SC‘s goal of the season at Toronto FC on 2023 MLS Decision Day.

With no respect for the retiring Michael Bradley, McGuire sprinted forward, latched onto a Mason Stajduhar goal kick, and flicked the ball over the TFC captain.

Expertly keeping it under control, McGuire then unleashed an unerring dipping strike from range past the helpless Sean Johnson to open the scoring at BMO Field.

This goal was significant because it saw Duncan McGuire surpass Damani Ralph (12) for the most goals (13) scored by a draft pick in their first MLS season out of college.

Ultimately, Duncan McGuire‘s first ever MLS season was so good that Belgian giants Anderlecht were rumoured to be interested in signing the forward just three months after his MLS debut at D.C. United, spotting huge potential in the 22-year-old.

With McGuire edging out central midfield team-mate César Araújo, who tallied 31% of the vote, Araújo deserves an honourable mention too.

Despite McGuire’s goalscoring brilliance, Araújo also contributed immensely to Orlando City SC‘s overall success throughout 2023.

The tough-tackling and incredibly tenacious Uruguay youth international started 31 of City’s 34 MLS regular season fixtures, mastering the dark arts with a burning win-at-all-costs mentality.

After Oscar Pareja‘s timely spring decision to ditch his 3-4-2-1 formation – experimented with early in the campaign – to a more familiar 4-2-3-1 shape, this had a lot to do with our upturn in form.

With Iván Angulo and Gastón González no longer deployed as wing backs, all hail the double pivot instead!

Indeed, the dynamic central midfield combination of César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena – deployed in a 4-2-3-1 formation – started to physically dominate MLS games, changing our fortunes in turn.

As voted by you however, many congratulations on being our 2023 Orlando City UK Young Player of the Year, Duncan McGuire!

Toronto FC 0 Orlando City SC 2 – Highlights – October 21, 2023 (Credit: Major League Soccer)

2023 Orlando City UK Newcomer of the Year

2018 winner: Chris Mueller

2019 winner: Nani

2020 winner: Pedro Gallese

2021 winner: Silvester van der Water

2022 winner: Facundo Torres

With a whopping 84% of the vote, Duncan McGuire is also your runaway Orlando City UK ‘Newcomer of the Year’ for 2023.

What can we say about Big Dunc that we haven’t said already?

Well, Duncan McGuire didn’t only receive league-wide respect and coverage for his incredible 13 MLS goals scored right out of college.

He also received a ton of love for his heartwarming story and meteoric rise to prominence.

As is usually the case, little was known about Duncan McGuire when Orlando City SC drafted him as the sixth overall pick in the 2023 MLS SuperDraft back on December 21, 2022.

A product of Creighton University, things went bang for McGuire in his third season for Creighton Bluejays men’s soccer, starting all but one of 24 matches and scoring 23 goals, the most in the nation and a new Bluejays single season record.

Collegiate form that caught the eye of Ricardo Moreira and Luiz Muzzi, just like Daryl Dike before McGuire, and Cyle Larin before all of them, Orlando City SC‘s track record for finding natural-born goalscorers in the draft is quite simply peerless.

Striking gold once might be lucky but three times is a trend!

As McGuire continued scoring more goals for Orlando City SC throughout the course of 2023, he picked up affectionate nicknames on social media such as the “Haaland of the Heartlands” and now most famously, “Orlando Runs on Duncan” – a homage to Dunkin’ Donuts’ famous “American Runs on Dunkin’” company slogan.

At The Den, Orlando City SC even released an “Orlando Runs on Duncan” themed hero t-shirt midway through the campaign, admittedly after Capowear Apparel got there first.

Then, autumn saw Orlando City SC amplify the fun by sending Duncan McGuire-themed care packages to local journalists and MLS pundits – complete with Dunkin’ Donuts’ original blend coffee, a coaster, and an invitation to vote McGuire as 2023 MLS Young Player of the Year, an accolade won in the end by Atlanta United’s Thiago Almada.

In the spirit of Dom Dwyer and Nani before him, Duncan McGuire‘s first City goal on his MLS debut at D.C. United also saw him somersault in celebration.

Becoming McGuire’s trademark ever since, the 22-year-old also enjoys a golf swing celebration too, packing his clubs for his game winning goal that left Atlanta United supporters shell-shocked at City’s impressive comeback at Mercedes-Benz Stadium back on July 15.

Impressively proving to be a cult figure at Orlando City SC in under one full season in a purple jersey, August saw Spectrum News 13’s Danielle Stein lead with an article discussing the importance of family in Duncan McGuire‘s overnight success.

McGuire, one of four siblings, maintains a special bond with his younger brother, who has Down Syndrome. He always makes time to “just hang out” with him when travelling back to his Omaha, Nebraska home.

As a humble guy who is just getting started at Orlando City SC, Duncan McGuire‘s outstanding 2023 efforts earned him his first two caps for the USYNT back in October, and there is undoubtedly much more to come from him.

Many congratulations on being our deserved 2023 Orlando City UK Newcomer of the Year, Duncan McGuire!

Orlando City’s Duncan McGuire On What’s Inspired His Success! | MLS YPOTY Nominee (Credit: CBS Sports Golazo)

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