U.S. Player of the Year nominees announced and Sauerbrunn is a finalist

It is Player of the Year award time for U.S. Soccer. They have announced the nominees for the 2016 U.S. Soccer Player of the Year awards. The only local player nominated this year is FC Kansas City’s Becky Sauerbrunn.

Sauerbrunn was already the captain of the Blues but was named co-captain of the Women’s National Team alongside fellow nominee Carli Lloyd. Sauerbrunn has been the anchor of the defense for the WNT, starting all 23 games and logging 1,897 minutes for the U.S., the most on the squad. Sauerbrunn also added three assists. For FC Kansas City she started 14 matches (missing some time for the Olympics) and played all every available minute. She even scored once as well.

Emily Cressy is nominated for Disabled Player of the Year and she also has a local connection. She played for the University of Kansas and was part of the U.S. squad that won the Deaf World Cup this year.

Winners for the Male and Young Male awards will be announced on Dec. 9 during FOX Sports special MLS Cup preview show at 10 p.m. ET on FS1, while the Female and Young Female award will be announced on Dec. 11 during ESPN FC's weekly recap show Sunday evening on ESPN2. The Disabled Player of the Year will be announced on ussoccer.com on Dec. 12.

U.S. Soccer Player of the Year Nominees

FEMALE

· Crystal Dunn

· Tobin Heath

· Carli Lloyd

· Alex Morgan

· Becky Sauerbrunn

MALE

· Jozy Altidore

· Michael Bradley

· Geoff Cameron

· Clint Dempsey

· Bobby Wood

YOUNG FEMALE

· Emily Ogle

· Kaleigh Riehl

· Karina Rodriguez

· Ashley Sanchez

· Andi Sullivan

YOUNG MALE

· Andrew Carleton

· Cameron Carter-Vickers

· Jordan Morris

· Christian Pulisic

· Josh Sargent

DISABLED

· Adam Ballou

· Nico Calabria

· Emily Cressy

· Matt Eby

Who would you vote for?

A little history

While Sauerbrunn is the only current Kansas City player nominated, there are quite a few former winners with local ties.

2014 Lauren Holiday – won the award while playing for FC Kansas City

1988 Peter Vermes – SKC’s manager was quite the player also

1995 Alexi Lalas – A season with the Wizards everyone wants to forget

Young player awards

2004 Heather O'Reilly – Current FC Kansas City attacker

2007 Lauren Cheney – Holiday won with her maiden name as well

2008 Kristie Mewis – Mewie played the first season with the Blues

2010 Bianca Henninger – Backed up Barnie for FC Kansas City

2011 Sydney Leroux – joined FCKC but sat the season out to have a baby

1998 Josh Wolff – Twice a Wizard, Josh scored a lot of goals

2002 Bobby Convey – Time with SKC a bust but was a very good young player

2004 Eddie Johnson – Pair of fantastic seasons with the Wizards

2005 Benny Feilhaber – An amazing few seasons with SKC

2009 Luis Gil – a technicality, was traded faster than he could have a cup of coffee