After being traded from the Galaxy, Magee went on a torrid scoring run which resulted with him being named the League's MVP.
The homecoming of Mike Magee was capped off on Thursday when the Chicago Fire forward was announced as the 2013 Volkswagen MLS MVP.
The 29-year-old returned to his native Chicago after a trade from the LA Galaxy in May and finished the season with 21 goals and four assists in 32 matches. He had six goals with the Galaxy in 10 matches and 15 goals in 22 matches with the Fire.
An 11-year MLS veteran, Magee’s previous top scoring mark came in his rookie season with the Metrostars in 2003 when he scored seven goals. He scored five goals in 2005 and 2008 in New York, then again in 2011 and 2012 with the LA Galaxy. Chicago was just 2-7-2 before acquiring Magee in a swap for former U.S. international Robbie Rogers, and finished the season just outside of the playoffs with a 14-13-7 record.
Magee won the club vote with 34.69-percent of the vote, the media vote with 37.33-percent of the vote and the player vote with 26.79-percent for a weighted total of 98.81 to outdistance his former Galaxy teammate Robbie Keane, who finished second with a total of 58.56. Montreal forward Marco Di Vaio was third at 35.42 and New York’s Tim Cahill was fourth at 30.67.
It marks the second time in the three years that the league’s Most Valuable Player was traded during the season and missed the playoffs after Dwayne De Rosario won the award in 2011. Magee is the first Chicago Fire player to be named MVP.
TIMBERS WIN TWO MORE AWARDS
The Portland Timbers had already earned MLS Coach of the Year and had three players in the MLS Best XI and on Wednesday they added two more honors when Diego Valeri won the MLS Newcomer of the Year award and Donovan Ricketts was named Allstate Goalkeeper of the Year.
Valeri had 10 goals and a league-leading 13 assists in his first season after coming to Portland from his native Argentina to run away with the award. He finished with 72.34-percent of the club vote, 79.22-percent of the media vote and 36.38-percent of the player vote for a weighted total of 187.94. New England Revolution defender Jose Goncalves was second with a total of 22.19, Vancouver’s Nigel Reo-Coker was third at 16.22 and Colorado goalkeeper Clint Irwin was fourth at 11.92.
Ricketts won his second Goalkeeper of the Year nod while posting a 13-5-14 record with a 0.97 goals against average, earning 14 shutouts on the season. He narrowly edged Real Salt Lake’s Nick Rimando on the strength of the club vote, where he earned 51.02-percent of the vote to 22.45 for Rimando. Ricketts earned 22.08-percent of the media vote and 28.24-percent of the player vote for a weighted total of 101.34. Rimando was second at 84.67, with Kansas City’s Jimmy Nielsen third at 23.93 and New York’s Luis Robles fourth at 21.99.
Sounders FC has earned both awards in previous years, with Kasey Keller winning the 2011 Goalkeeper of the Year and Mauro Rosales winning Newcomer of the Year that year. Fredy Montero was also the 2009 Newcomer of the Year.
