The MLS Young Player of the Year Award (known as the Rookie of the Year Award from 1996 to 2019) is an annual award given to the top player in Major League Soccer under the age of 22.

The award was initially awarded to a rookie, or a player who no prior professional experience, usually to players that had previously played in MLS youth team academies or played college soccer. This practice is fairly common in other American sports leagues, such as the MLB Rookie of the Year (baseball), NASCAR Rookie of the Year (motorsports), NFL Rookie of the Year Award (American football), the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy (basketball), and the Calder Memorial Trophy (ice hockey).

In 2020, MLS replaced the Rookie of the Year Award with the MLS Young Player of the Year Award, given to the best player in the league aged 22 and under, regardless of prior professional playing experience.^[1]

Season	Player	Position	Team	Draft Pick	Draft Class	College
1996	Steve Ralston	Midfielder	Tampa Bay Mutiny	18	1996 MLS College Draft	Florida International
1997	Mike Duhaney	Defender	Tampa Bay Mutiny	87	1996 MLS Inaugural Draft	UNLV
1998	Ben Olsen	Midfielder	D.C. United	N/A	Project-40	Virginia
1999	Jay Heaps	Defender	Miami Fusion	2	1999 MLS College Draft	Duke
2000	Carlos Bocanegra	Defender	Chicago Fire	4	2000 MLS SuperDraft	UCLA
2001	Rodrigo Faria	Forward	MetroStars	13	2001 MLS SuperDraft	Concordia College
2002	Kyle Martino	Midfielder	Columbus Crew	8	2002 MLS SuperDraft	Virginia
2003	Damani Ralph	Forward	Chicago Fire	18	2003 MLS SuperDraft	Connecticut
2004	Clint Dempsey	Midfielder	New England Revolution	8	2004 MLS SuperDraft	Furman
2005	Michael Parkhurst	Defender	New England Revolution	9	2005 MLS SuperDraft	Wake Forest
2006	Jonathan Bornstein	Defender	Chivas USA	37	2006 MLS SuperDraft	UCLA
2007	Maurice Edu	Midfielder	Toronto FC	1	2007 MLS SuperDraft	Maryland
2008	Sean Franklin	Defender	LA Galaxy	4	2008 MLS SuperDraft	Cal State Northridge
2009	Omar Gonzalez	Defender	LA Galaxy	3	2009 MLS SuperDraft	Maryland
2010	Andy Najar	Midfielder	D.C. United	N/A	Homegrown Player	N/A
2011	C. J. Sapong	Forward	Sporting Kansas City	10	2011 MLS SuperDraft	James Madison
2012	Austin Berry	Defender	Chicago Fire	9	2012 MLS SuperDraft	Louisville
2013	Dillon Powers	Midfielder	Colorado Rapids	11	2013 MLS SuperDraft	Notre Dame
2014	Tesho Akindele	Forward	FC Dallas	6	2014 MLS SuperDraft	Colorado School of Mines
2015	Cyle Larin	Forward	Orlando City SC	1	2015 MLS SuperDraft	Connecticut
2016	Jordan Morris	Forward	Seattle Sounders FC	N/A	Homegrown Player	Stanford
2017	Julian Gressel	Midfielder	Atlanta United FC	8	2017 MLS SuperDraft	Providence College
2018	Corey Baird	Forward	Real Salt Lake	N/A	Homegrown Player	Stanford
2019	Andre Shinyashiki	Forward	Colorado Rapids	5	2019 MLS SuperDraft	Denver

Season	Player	Position	Team	Age
2020	Diego Rossi	Forward	Los Angeles FC	22
2021	Ricardo Pepi	Forward	FC Dallas	18
2022	Jesús Ferreira	Forward		21
2023	Thiago Almada	Midfielder	Atlanta United FC	22
2024	Diego Luna	Midfielder	Real Salt Lake	21

Nationality	Number of winners
United States	19
Canada	2
Brazil	2
Germany	1
Honduras	1
Jamaica	1
Uruguay	1
Argentina	1