MLS: Top 5 Goalkeepers in league history

1 of 5

SALT LAKE CITY, UT – SEPTEMBER 11: Nick Rimando #18 of Real Salt Lake waves to the crowd during warmups before their game against the San Jose Earthquakes at Rio Tinto Stadium on September 11, 2019, in Sandy, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images) /

There have been some wonderful players over the 25-year history of MLS, but who ranks in the top five goalkeepers of all-time?

Here at MLS Multiplex, we have gone back through the statistics, the awards won, the games played, the goals scored and the shutouts made to work out who we think are the best five players in the seven major positions.

We have gone through the full-backs, centre-backs, central midfielders, attacking midfielders, wingers and forwards, but we start with the men that keep the ball out of the net, the goalkeepers.

Major League Soccer has seen some amazing shot-stoppers over its 25-year history, with plenty of ‘keepers having the Goalkeeper of the Year and MLS Cup double under their belts, while one No.1 has taken league MVP honours, and remains the only goalkeeper to have done so to date.

Unsurprisingly, he is among our top five goalkeepers of all-time, while three men to have been named Goalkeeper of the Year on two occasions are also in our list. The likes of Tim Howard, Kasey Keller and Kevin Hartman have to be mentioned due to their efforts in the American top flight, while Joe Cannon, the fourth shot-stopper to have been awarded Goalkeeper of the Year twice, only just missed out on making the top five.

Along with the Goalkeepers of the Year and the lone shot-stopping MVP, an all-time record-breaker also makes our top five, but who are those five men…?

CHESTER, PA- MAY 11: Donovan Ricketts #1 of the Los Angeles Galaxy in action during the game against the Philadelphia Union at PPL Park on May 11, 2011, in Chester, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images) /

5. Donovan Ricketts

The first member on our list of the top five goalkeepers to have ever played in Major League Soccer is former Jamaican international captain Donovan Ricketts.

The shot-stopper, who made a century of international appearances for the Reggae Boyz in his career, spent eight seasons in Major League Soccer following time in his native Jamaica and the English Premier League

MLS Career & Honours:

LA Galaxy (2009-2011, 2015)
Montreal Impact (2012)
Portland Timbers (2012-2014)
Orlando City (2015)

——————

MLS Goalkeeper of the Year – 2010, 2013
MLS Best XI – 2010, 2013

——————

MLS Cup – 2011
Supporters’ Shield – 2010, 2011
Caribbean Cup – 2005, 2008

After his spell in England, and having already won the Caribbean Cup with Jamaica in both 2005 and 2008, Ricketts made the move to MLS, signing for LA Galaxy ahead of the 2009 campaign and made an immediate impact, being named MLS Player of the Week after shutting out Chivas USA in his first regular-season appearance for the club.

In his first season with the Galaxy, the side went all the way to the MLS Cup final, with the Jamaican keeping nine clean sheets in his 26 regular-season appearances. A year later, he became the first ‘foreign player’ to win the coveted Goalkeeper of the Year award (not including Canada’s Pat Onstad as Canadian sides are in MLS).

He took the award, along with a place in the 2010 MLS Best XI, thanks to a sublime season, thanks to keeping 11 clean sheets in 29 games during the regular season, which tied the LA Galaxy club record for a single-season.

He was part of the LA Galaxy team that lifted the MLS Cup in 2011 but missed around half of the campaign through injury, and following the end of the season, the Jamaican moved north of the border, signing for Montreal Impact ahead of their inaugural term in the league as an expansion side.

Ricketts was in goal for the club’s first-ever win in Major League Soccer and he kept three shutouts in 24 league games being traded to the Portland Timbers for the final stretch of the 2012 season, which saw him keep two clean sheets in nine regular-season matches.

PORTLAND, OR – SEPTEMBER 15: Donovan Ricketts #1 of Portland Timbers gets set to kick the ball as he warms up before the game against the Seattle Sounders FC at Jeld-Wen Field on September 15, 2012, in Portland, Oregon. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /

His first full season with Portland came in 2013, and he went on to become MLS Goalkeeper of the Year for a second time, becoming only the fourth player in the league’s 25-year history to win the award multiple times. Ricketts took the award thanks to a league-high 14 shutouts that year, along with breaking a Timbers record for the longest individual shutout streak, becoming the first goalkeeper in the club’s history to go more than 400 minutes without conceding a goal.

He spent one more season in Portland, before being selected with the first pick in the 2014 MLS Expansion Draft. Ricketts would go on to play for another new team in MLS that season, starting the season in goal for Orlando City SC, one of two expansion sides in the 2015 campaign, along with New York City FC.

He only played ten matches for the Lions before returning to LA Galaxy for the second half of the 2015 campaign, which would ultimately be the last of his footballing career. Ricketts played for the club 11 times in the latter part of his final season, ending his time in MLS with 188 regular-season appearances, along with 12 post-season matches under his belt, taking his entire tally to a perfect 200.

The now-42-year-old set the path for Jamaican goalkeepers having success in Major League Soccer, with Andre Blake, the Philadelphia Union No.1, having taken the Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2016, becoming the second player from the Caribbean nation to have done so. A two-time winner of the GKOTY award, along with two Best XI selections and an MLS Cup to his name, Ricketts definitely enjoyed success during his eight years in the United States.

Home/All-Time Lists