For the second time in three seasons, Ike Opara has been named MLS Defender of the Year, this time as the foundational piece of Minnesota United’s much-improved defense.
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Opara becomes just the fourth player to win multiple Defender of the Year awards, joining Carlos Bocanegra (2002, 2003), Robin Fraser (1999, 2004) and Chad Marshall, the only three-time winner (2008, 2009, 2014) in MLS history. Opara won the award going away, nearly doubling the percentage of votes received by second-place Walker Zimmerman.
| Defender of the Year | Player % | Club % | Media % | Final % |
| Ike Opara | 25.75% | 27.27% | 44.88% | 32.64% |
| Walker Zimmerman | 20.40% | 17.17% | 12.20% | 16.59% |
| Miles Robinson | 19.40% | 13.13% | 15.75% | 16.09% |
| Maxime Chanot | 1.67% | 16.16% | 4.33% | 7.39% |
| Eddie Segura | 4.35% | 9.09% | 5.91% | 6.45% |
| Aaron Long | 2.34% | 5.05% | 1.97% | 3.12% |
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This time last year, the 30-year-old was a member of one of the league’s stingiest defensive units as a member of Sporting Kansas City. Following a contract dispute with Sporting, Opara was traded to Minnesota in exchange for $900,000 of targeted allocation money, plus an additional $100,000 after Minnesota qualified for the playoffs for the first time since joining MLS.
