For the second time in three seasons Minnesota United’s Ike Opara has been named the Major League Soccer’s Defender of the Year. The first award came in 2017 while he was a member of Sporting Kansas City.
“Initially being able to say [I’m] a two time winner, I think I was only fourth person to do that. So that’s really cool. To be where I was five years ago, thinking I wasn’t gonna play soccer again. To rattle off the last few years I’ve done, I’m grateful for a lot of people.