Instead of a standard flight attendant, Minnesota United assistant coach Zarek Valentin was heard over the plane’s intercom system before the team’s flight to Seattle on Saturday.
And instead of rote instructions that all passengers have heard a million times, Valentin shared news: Dayne St. Clair has won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.
The Loons ‘keeper knew something was afoot before the announcement, given team staff members were pointing cameras toward his seat in the rear of the plane.
Michael Boxall and other tammates clamored for a speech. St. Clair went to the front of the plane, grabbed the intercom and said he was thankful and it wouldn’t be possible without all the teammates who played in front of him this season.
“I’m happy about it,” St. Clair told local reporters. “But I feel like a little bit is I probably haven’t fully processed it, because my mindset right now is so focused on being able to get a result” in Game 2 of the first round MLS Cup Playoff series against the Sounders on Monday night.
St. Clair won the award over two other finalists: NYCFC’s Matt Freese and Vancouver’s Yohei Takaoka. St. Clair led MLS with a 79.7 save percentage, was second at 1.0 goals per 90 minutes and tied for fourth with 10 clean sheets.
St. Clair doesn’t have a favorite moment from his award-winning season and says that’s a good thing.
“I think I’ve been able to really be the most consistent that I have been,” said St. Clair, who is in his seventh seasons as a pro. “All those moments kind of combined in the consistency and the work.”
St. Clair is the second Loons goalkeeper to win the award after Vito Mannone in 2019. That was St. Clair’s rookie season that season and he spent part of the year on loan with Forward Madison in USL, but he recalled how tight that team was defensively, with the likes of Boxall, Ike Opara and Ozzie Alonso ahead of Mannone.
St Clair remembers Mannone’s penalty kick save against FC Dallas that season as well as his consistency.
“No real, quote, unquote, big mistakes,” St. Clair said. “Sometimes those are going to happen, but at the same time, is someone back there that you can really rely on to make the save more than not and make the hard things look easy.”
St. Clair, who is Canada’s top goalkeeper going into the 2026 World Cup, will be an MLS free agent at the end 2025.
“There’s no update for me,” St. Clair said. “I’m kind of focused on this playoff stretch right now and doing the best I can for the team. I think I’ll take care of that and see where all the cards lie and deal with that after” the playoffs.
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