Kansas City pair lead five NWSL MVP finalists

Kansas City Current teammates Temwa Chawinga and Bia Zaneratto were among the five finalists for the 2025 NWSL Most Valuable Player award announced Monday.

Delphine Cascarino of the San Diego Wave, Esther Gonzalez of Gotham FC and Manaka Matsukubo of the North Carolina Courage are also up for the award.

Chawinga, the league MVP in 2024, and Zaneratto guided the Current to a dominant regular season (21-2-3) and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs before losing in the quarterfinals on Sunday.

Finalists were also revealed for Defender of the Year, Goalkeeper of the Year, Midfielder of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year.

The finalists were determined in a preliminary round of voting by current players, owners, general managers, coaches and media.

Fans can participate in the voting online through Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET. The winners will be determined using a weighted scale of votes from players (40%), owners/GMs/coaches (25%), media 25%) and fans (10%).

Winners will be announced at the inaugural NWSL Awards, broadcast live on ESPN2 from San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 19.

The finalists for the other 2025 awards:

Defender of the Year: Jordyn Bugg (Seattle Reign), Tara McKeown (Washington Spirit), Avery Patterson (Houston Dash), Izzy Rodriguez (Kansas City Current), Kayla Sharples (Kansas City Current)

Goalkeeper of the Year: Ann-Katrin Berger (Gotham FC), Claudia Dickey (Seattle Reign), Lorena (Kansas City Current)

Midfielder of the Year: Kenza Dali (San Diego Wave), Debinha (Kansas City Current), Claire Hutton (Kansas City Current), Manaka Matsukubo (North Carolina Courage), Olivia Moultrie (Portland Thorn)

Rookie of the Year: Maddie Dahlien (Seattle Reign), Lilly Reale (Gotham FC), Riley Tiernan (Angel City FC)

Coach of the Year: Vlatko Andonovski (Kansas City Current), Adrian Gonzalez (Washington Spirit), Beverly Yanez (Racing Louisville)

--Field Level Media