BWP is back, baby.
His early-season struggles firmly a distant memory, New York Red Bulls striker Bradley Wright-Phillips took home the Etihad Airways Player of the Month award for May on Friday.
The Englishman won 29.01 percent of the vote to beat out Colorado Rapids goalkeeper Zac MacMath, Red Bulls teammate Sacha Kljestan, Montreal Impact attacker Ignacio Piatti and New York City FC forward David Villa.
Wright-Phillips, who didn’t score in New York’s first seven matches of the year, had an absolutely huge May. The Designated Player scored six goals and added two assists in five appearances, netting a hat trick in New York’s 3-0 win against Toronto on May 28 and scoring twice in the Red Bulls’ 7-0 demolition of NYCFC on May 21.
Wright-Phillips now has eight goals and two assists on the season and trails Villa by two goals in the MLS Golden Boot race. Wright-Phillips won the Player of the Month award by nearly 10 percentage points over second-place finisher MacMath (19.44 percent). Kljestan finished third in the fan vote with 18.5 percent, while Piatti (17.63 percent) and Villa (15.43 percent) brought up the rear.
The five Etihad Airways Player of the Month finalists are determined at the end of each month by the MLSsoccer.com editorial staff. The winner is then determined by a fan vote.
All three of 2016 Player of the Month awards have been won by forwards, with Real Salt Lake’s Joao Plata grabbing the March honors before Portland Timbers’ Fanendo Adi won in April.
