Following his second hat trick of the 2024 season, D.C. United striker Christian Benteke has been named MLS Player of the Matchday for Matchday 13.
The Belgian star scored all three of his team's goals in a 3-2 victory at Atlanta United, leaving him tied with Inter Miami CF's Luis Suárez and Real Salt Lake's Cristian Arango atop the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi leaderboard with 11 tallies.
The outburst marked Benteke's third hat trick in his last 13 MLS games dating back to last season, bringing his career total to 26 goals in 48 games since his 2022 arrival from English Premier League side Crystal Palace. It also continued a remarkable run of aerial dominance for the 33-year-old – the trio of strikes all came off headers, leading MLS with seven such goals in 2024.
This is Benteke's second Player of the Matchday honor of 2024 after he also garnered the honors in Matchday 1+2. He's the first D.C. player to win multiple Player of the Matchday awards in the same season since Luciano Acosta and Wayne Rooney each managed the feat in 2018.
Now sporting a 4W-3L-5D record (17 points) that has them seventh in the Eastern Conference, Benteke and D.C. will look to extend their current unbeaten run to four games when hosting New York Red Bulls on Wednesday (7:30 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
The MLS Player of the Matchday is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while an X (formerly known as Twitter) fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
