Introducing The Benny Awards

by Martin Shatzer on Oct 25, 2025 10:14 PM EDT in Benny Awards

It's an annual tradition. The Benny Awards! Also known as the Bennies.

Each year, we conduct a series of polls giving you a choice of four D.C. United players nominated in each category. Voting will last for two weeks per category, there are ten categories, and a new one will be posted each Tuesday evening, starting tomorrow.

In this the third installment of the Bennies, we have one change. I've elected to discontinue the Grosy Award (as awarded to the ballsiest player in previous years) in favor of the Esky Award, which will now be presented to the most popular player.

And so the awards this year are as follows:

1. The Richie Award - Presented to the most underrated player.
2. The Nelly Award - Presented to the best newcomer (New clarification: non-rookie).
3. The Convey Award - Presented to United's rookie of the year.
4. The Donnety Award - Presented to the team's biggest disappointment.
5. The Esky Award - Presented to the fan favorite.
6. The Freddy Award - Presented to the biggest story.
7. The Harkesy Award - Presented to the best leader.
8. The Popie Award - Presented to the team's defender of the year.
9. The Etchy Award - Presented to the team's MVP.
10. The Benny Award - Presented to the highest rated player (not always the same).

Feel free to take a look at last year's voting to get a better idea of how all this works. And if you have any strong feelings about which players should be nominated for certain awards, feel free to leave it for me in the comments.

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Najar

I nominate Najar for all of these awards, except biggest disappointment….that’ll come when he leaves United.

Actually, for defender of the year, I think it’s Juilus James, hands down. Not because he was great, but because he kept his hands down in most games. He did blow one game, when he didn’t — which is why I’m qualifying my vote for “Julius James, hands down”. Mostly, I’m voting for James because he played most of the games. No one else did.

If Najar isn’t eligible for “newcomer of the year”, I vote for Pena, and I renominate him for next year, too. He played so little that he shouldn’t lose his eligibility for this award. I’d also nominate him for disappointment of the year, but this is a redundant award. Who on this team. other than Najar doesn’t deserve the “biggest disappointment”?

OK — Most underrated player? Is that “Playa” or player? For the on-field stuff? Varela.

by fischy on Oct 25, 2025 11:18 PM EDT reply actions

Biggest disappointment

Its going to be really hard to narrow the Donnety down to just 4 players. I can think of at least 6 who deserve it.

Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekend Writer for SBNation DC.

by Martin Shatzer on Oct 25, 2025 11:41 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

With not a lot of sleep, here goes:

Richie- Simms. Had to play the back line this year for cripe’s sake and had been playing with half a hernia. Only other one I could think of was MacTavish
Nelly - Any one of Hernandez, Boskovic or King.
Convey - Najar
Donnety - Jakovic
Esky - Tino
Freddy - Either Najar’s emergence or Jaime’s retirement
Harksey - Absentia?
Popie - James
Etchy - Najar
Benny - Najar

"I’m happy to have contributed to this league, to have done something important in my career, I’m proud, but you always will think you still could’ve done more, but tonight tells I’ve done things well."

by Bald Pollack on Oct 26, 2025 6:03 AM EDT reply actions

Awards

Here goes:

1. The Richie Award - Presented to the most underrated player.
Morsink actually had some good games later in the season and wasn’t uniformly bad.

2. The Nelly Award - Presented to the best newcomer (New clarification: non-rookie).
Bosko. Think this guy needs another year and a better supporting cast but I see quality

3. The Convey Award - Presented to United’s rookie of the year.
Can only be Najar. Certainly not Graye. (This is the only vote I’m giving Najar, if not he would simply win the whole thing)

4. The Donnety Award - Presented to the team’s biggest disappointment.
This award makes me wish we’d given the original Donnet more of a chance. Would have to go to Hernandez. Great potential, good on the ball but strikers have to score. (Pena, Allsop also candidates here. Plus thought we’d see more out of Tino.)

5. The Esky Award - Presented to the fan favorite.
Jaime.

6. The Freddy Award - Presented to the biggest story.
Najar by far…

7. The Harkesy Award - Presented to the best leader.
Quaranta?

8. The Popie Award - Presented to the team’s defender of the year.
James.

9. The Etchy Award - Presented to the team’s MVP.
Najar again (thought I’d be able to only vote for him once but no…)

10. The Benny Award - Presented to the highest rated player (not always the same).
Najar, Najar, Najar

by Irrlicht on Oct 26, 2025 11:50 AM EDT reply actions

Morsink

He did play well from about game 24-game 29, but reverted to his true self against TFC (utterly ridiculous giveaway turned into Toronto’s third goal within 5 seconds). He spent 2/3 of the season being a disaster; a month of being decent doesn’t cover that up.

Black and Red United

by ChestRockwell on Oct 26, 2025 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions

My votes

1. The Richie Award - Zayner
*He’s tough, versatile, smart, and clearly has a winner’s mentality. I keep seeing people brush him off like he’s no better than Morsink or McTavish, and that’s utter nonsense from where I sit.

2. The Nelly Award - Boskovic

3. The Convey Award - Najar

4. The Donnety Award - Allsopp
*We can’t vote for front office figures here, right?

5. The Esky Award - Moreno

6. The Freddy Award - Najar

7. The Harkesy Award - Quaranta
*Tino showed that he’s a leader through hard work and increased maturity. Next season, however, that must come with better numbers.

8. The Popie Award - James
*Not even close here. James is the one defender that was here for most of the season that clearly improved. Jakovic is in a holding pattern developmentally, and everyone else wasn’t even worth considering.

9. The Etchy Award - Najar
*Our sole true offensive catalyst was capable of completely unbalancing opposing defenses and finished tied for the team lead in goals despite playing midfield. This will probably be a unanimous vote.

10. The Benny Award - Najar
*I get the difference between these awards, but the consistent poor play from everyone else means that voting here was just as easy as the Etchy.

Black and Red United

by ChestRockwell on Oct 26, 2025 7:26 PM EDT reply actions