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Mike Magee might have to make some room in his personal trophy case.
The reigning MLS MVP is one of four players nominated for the 'MLS Player of the Year' ESPY, along with Robbie Keane, Tim Cahill and Marco Di Vaio. The award will be presented on July 16 live on ESPN.
The award - first introduced in 2006 - has only ever been won by players from the LA Galaxy or New York Red Bull. Only one American, Landon Donovan, has ever won. Donovan leads the way as a five-time recipient, followed by former teammate David Beckham with two and Thierry Henry with one.
So with only one American and no player outside of LA or New York ever winning, Magee has a great chance to make some history next month.
Sadly, Magee was in a LA uniform for part of the 2013 season but his MVP form and the statistics that landed him an ESPY nomination mostly came while in a Fire uniform. Magee put up an impressive six goals in 10 games for LA, but he put up an even more impressive 18 goals in 25 appearances for Chicago across all competitions in 2013.
While I am clearly on the Magee bandwagon to win the ESPY, Cahill could swoop in because of his contributions to a Supporter's Shield campaign and Keane is always a possibility because of his international fame and the market in which he plays. I'm sorry to say Di Vaio, but as an old Italian playing in Montreal, ESPN just does not care about you despite your 20 goals in 2013.
Whether our prodigal son takes home the award or not is no huge issue. We all know what he meant to the 2013 squad and it was one of the most historical individual efforts in the club's history. He brought on a renaissance turning a 2-7-2 record into a 14-13-7 record.
I hope for Magee he walks away with the ESPY, but I hope he also remembers it is ESPN and they like to do stupid things. I can already guarantee the 2015 nominees will be Dempsey, Martins, Bradley and Defoe no matter what, even if Ngyuen keeps up his form. And you might as already hand the 2016 ESPY to David Villa.
But congratulations, Magic Mike. You deserve it.