10%

KRISTIJAN KAHLINA: MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER GOALKEEPER OF THE YEAR

By Charlotte FC

November 12^th, 2024

Kristijan Kahlina is known by many titles and nicknames among his supporters. You've heard them all, “the Croatian Brick Wall,” “Super-Kahli,” and even the rare “inhuman.” Now we add another title to his legacy: 2024 Major League Soccer Goalkeeper of the Year.

KRISTIJAN KAHLINA: MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER GOALKEEPER OF THE YEAR

He ended this year with a perfect regular season attendance record, notching his 100th appearance for the Club.

This season Kahlina is near the top of every statistical category in MLS:

T-1st in Clean Sheets: 12
1st in Save Percentages: 75.63%
T-1st in Minutes Played: 3,060 min
T-3rd in Saves: 121
3rd in Average Goals Against: 1.09

And Kahlina was a key component in why Charlotte FC were so hard to beat.

His leadership between the posts helped Charlotte frustrate the opposition all season long and led to plenty of bottles of wine as the clean sheet tally began to rise.

Throughout the month of May where The Crown had a packed schedule of six matches, the keeper had clearly emerged as one of the league’s best.

Four matches at home in front of the best atmosphere in the MLS, Kahlina had put aside the fatigue May brought and did not allow a single goal in The Fortress. This led to five straight clean sheets for The Crown, a very impressive run by any standard.

He was unstoppable.

As many players have said, the supporters have served as their 12th man this year. Having the supporters roar behind the goal, always reminded him of the extra support he had and always gave him someone to celebrate with.

His passion and elite skill have made him a star on the pitch, but his humility has made him a role model off the pitch.

The story of Caroline Love was an amazing reminder to the team that they do more than just play soccer but play an integral role in people’s lives. Kahlina had taken on that responsibility of being a role model for Caroline through some of the hardest years of her life with grace, intentionality and love.

Knowing his responsibility to the community on top of his on the pitch responsibilities is what makes Kahlina not only worthy of Goalkeeper of The Year but a great human more importantly.

Charlotte FC capped off their 3rd season with another appearance in the postseason. They hosted the first MLS Cup Playoff match the city has ever seen. After falling in the first match of the Best-Of-3 Series, Kahlina came back in the second match to lead the team to yet another clean sheet in regulation sending them to a penalty shootout.

His passion, consistency and do-or-die mentality carried through the shootout which resulted in the club’s first ever home playoff win in front of an absolutely elated crowd.

Dean Smith said it better than anyone else when asked what he would say to those who doubt Kristijan Kahlina’s candidacy for MLS Goalkeeper of The Year:

“I don’t see many more candidates out there”

No other candidates could stack up to the Brick Wall himself.

And now it is known loud and proud, Kristijan Kahlina is undoubtedly YOUR 2024 MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.

Footnotes

Photos by Taylor Banner, Alana McCallion, Laura Wolf, Blue Amber, Lizzy Otten & Georgia Soares. Video by Ian Kunsey, Alexandra Warrington, Ryan Luparello, Marco Yanez & Ben Grijalva. Graphics by Tessa Hansen. Story Written and Edited by Shannon Kingston.