Cover photo Maor Alexelsi.
After nearly a decade of updates, the top 100 returns once again with this winter’s lineup. Each goalkeeper is slotted by a number of factors: historical individual results, current individual level of play, and projected on-field performance. The top 100 attempts to remove exterior noise and team statistics to isolate the goalkeeper’s true ability.
Each block of ten names features a player to watch, giving a small bio about the goalkeeper and what to look out for in the coming months. To see how the top 100 rankings have evolved since July 2013, click here.
This article is under construction as it has been updated from the start of the year.
1. Matt Turner, 30 - Nottingham Forest (England.1)
2. Ethan Horvath, 29 - Cardiff (England.2)
3. Brad Stuver, 33 - Austin FC
4. Josh Cohen, 32 - Atlanta United
5. Chris Brady, 20 - Chicago Fire
6. Joe Willis, 36 - Nashville SC
7. Matt Freese, 26 - New York City FC
8. Gabriel Slonina, 20 - Chelsea FC (England.1) #
9. Roman Celentano, 24 - FC Cincinnati
10. Zac MacMath, 33 - Real Salt Lake
# - currently on loan at Barnsley FC (England.3)
One to Watch: Gabriel Slonina. After a stressful loan in Belgium with an unsuccessful relegation battle, Slonina’s starting spot in England’s third tier lasted just two months before getting moved to the bench. It’s a tough time for American goalkeeping and the excitement for the future prospects has gone from boiling to simmering with recent developments. Slonina needs to lead the charge in proving the young prospects are more substance than smoke.
11. John McCarthy, 32 - Los Angeles Galaxy
12. Zack Steffen, 29 - Colorado Rapids
13. Andrew Thomas, 26 - Seattle Sounders
14. Tyler Miller, 31 - DC United
15. Steve Clark, 38 - Houston Dynamo
16. Stefan Frei, 38 - Seattle Sounders
17. Drake Callender, 27 - Inter Miami
18. Earl Edwards, 32 - New England Revolution
19. Antonio Carrera, 20 - FC Dallas
20. William Yarbrough, 35 - San Jose Earthquakes
One to Watch: Antonio Carrera. True to the US’s nature, FC Dallas’ top goalkeeping prospect showed well this past season. The only downside was that he only picked up nine matches in the past twelve months. Carrera has some upside but the potential will continue to dwindle if he won’t get proper investment. Hopefully, 2025 will be kinder to another promising goalkeeper who has yet to be given a longer leash.
21. Tim Melia, 38 - Sporting Kansas City
22. Brad Guzan, 40 - Atlanta United
23. Alec Kann, 34 - FC Cincinnati
24. Luis Barraza, 28 - New York City FC
25. Danny Vitiello, 28 - Sacramento Republic
26. Sean Johnson, 35 - Toronto FC
27. Jimmy Maurer, 36 - FC Dallas
28. Bill Hamid, 34 - Maryland Bobcats
29. Patrick Schulte, 23 - Columbus Crew
30. Adam Grinwis, 32 - Charleston Battery
One to Watch: Patrick Schulte. Schulte’s rise to fame took off in 2023 as the young St. Louisan has already amassed nearly 100 professional starts and 2 caps with the men’s senior team. Despite the invested time, Schulte still looks uncomfortable on crossing situations and seems to lack the big-time save a little too often for an MLS team eyeing silverware. There’s still time to develop for Schulte but typically when it comes to crossing and shot-stopping, we’re unlikely to see much growth for a goalkeeper in their mid-20s.
31. Sean Lewis, 32 - One Knoxville SC
32. Andrew Tarbell, 31 - Houston Dynamo
33. Alex Bono, 30 - DC United
34. Mike Lansing, 30 - Kristiansund (Norway.1)
35. Pablo Sisniega, 29 - San Antonio FC
36. Stefan Cleveland, 30 - Austin FC
37. Jesse Gonzalez, 29 - Free Agent
38. Spencer Richey, 32 - Chicago Fire
39. Brian Schwake, 23 - Castellón (Spain.2)
40. Evan Louro, 28 - FC Cincinnati
One to Watch: Brian Schwake. Leading into 2024, Schwake had some impressive momentum in his success with Scottish second-division side, Greenock Morton FC. But since his move to Spain in August of 2023, Schwake has largely sat the bench, once again reminding everyone how difficult it is for American goalkeepers to break into Spain. The question yet to be answered is whether Schwake is truly getting developed behind the scenes, which is certainly a possibility, or if he is plateauing in his development. Typically two years on the bench is a fairly reliable death sentence when it comes to a goalkeeper’s growth. Schwake has some time before that threshold but ultimately we’re heading into 2025 with less momentum than just 12 months ago.
41. Nathan Steinwascher, 31 - Detroit City
42. Carlos dos Santos, 24 - Inter Miami
43. David Bingham, 35 - Charlotte FC
44. Ethan Wady, 22 - Millwall FC (England.2)
45. Gavin Beavers, 19 - Real Salt Lake
46. Mason Stajduhar, 26 - Orlando City SC
47. Jonathan Klinsmann, 27 - Cesena (Italy.2)
48. George Marks, 25 - Charlotte FC
49. Tomas Gomez, 31 - Real Salt Lake
50. Logan Ketterer, 31 - CF Montreal
One to Watch: Carlos dos Santos. Often the rise and fall of a goalkeeper’s career can be difficult to watch but dos Santos’ plateauing over the past couple of years has been equally painful. The USYNT alum originally had some unique buzz as he and Kyle Zobeck were some of the few (only?) goalkeepers in the US’s pool to truly fulfill the sweeper keeper requirements. Fast-forward a few years and the Benfica product has more than struggled in a system that puts a lot of emphasis on goalkeepers sitting on their line and handling blasted shots from short range. Hopefully, dos Santos’ lone MLS league appearance in 2024 - a 4-0 loss to Red Bulls on a rainy night in Harrison - isn’t an omen of more to come in 2025.
51. John Pulskamp, 23 - Sporting Kansas City
52. Kendall McIntosh, 30 - San Antonio FC
53. Ryan Meara, 34 - New York Red Bulls
54. Tyler Deric, 36 - Memphis 901
55. Danny Rogers, 30 - St. Patrick's Athletic (Ireland.1)
56. Rashid Nuhu, 28 - Union Omaha
57. John Berner, 33 - Atlanta United 2
58. Paul Blanchette, 30 - Oakland Roots
59. Edward Delgado, 26 - Hailstorm FC
60. Michael Creek, 26 - Tulsa
One to Watch: Kendall McIntosh. Similar to dos Santos, McIntosh is yet another USYNT alum whose career seems to have never really taken off. After stints with Portland, RBNY, and SKC, the move to San Antonio was supposed to offer a resurgence for the Santa Clara graduate. Unfortunately, the USL side faced a six-game skid with McIntosh in net, scoring just three goals over the stretch and effectively ending his play time in 2024. McIntosh has fantastic reflexes but seems to miss the result-changing save to nail down a starting position, a skill that coincidentally comes with consistent playtime. There’s a situation out there for McIntosh to become a starter but whether USL teams are willing to trust the journeyman is another issue.
61. Jeff Gal, 31 - Chicago Fire
62. Jordan Farr, 30 - Tampa Bay Rowdies
63. Colin Shutler, 26 - Orange County SC
64. Vicente Reyes, 21 - Norwich U21 (England.2) #
65. Jake McGuire, 30 - North Carolina FC
66. Mitch North, 29 - Irvine Zeta
67. Elliot Panicco, 28 - Nashville SC
68. Ford Parker, 28 - Tormenta FC
69. TJ Bush, 27 - Chattanooga Red Wolves
70. Eric Dick, 30 - Pittsburgh Riverhounds
# - currently on loan at Cambridge United (England.3)
One to Watch: Mitch North. The goalkeeping in NISA isn’t great and can often be fulfilled with a goalkeeper who has either come out of the woodwork or disappears into the ether the following year. North follows this same trend by seemingly taking a long hiatus after a successful run with Sonoma State, finishing in 2017. Fast-forward four years and the former Seawolf (Sonoma State’s iconic mascot) resurfaced in the often-overlooked third division in 2021. North was a cornerstone for Irvine Zeta as the league’s standout goalkeeper but as to what the next step for the west coast-based goalkeeper is anyone’s guess at this point.
71. Adrian Zendejas, 29 - Skovde AIK (Sweden.2)
72. Carlos Saldaña, 28 - Detroit City
73. Joe Bendik, 35 - Vancouver Whitecaps
74. Taishi Nozawa, 21 - FC Tokyo (Japan.1)
75. Matt Van Oekel, 38 - Birmingham Legion
76. Abraham Romero, 26 - Columbus Crew
77. Drew Romig, 26 - Tormenta FC
78. AJ Marcucci, 25 - New York Red Bulls #
79. Matt Bersano, 32 - Austin FC
80. Alexandros Tabakis, 31 - New Mexico United
# - currently on loan at IF Gnistan (Finland.1)
One to Watch: AJ Marcucci. After three years with RBNY 2 as essentially their starter (some split-time stints here and there), Marcucci was surprisingly relegated to the bench in favor of sixteen-year-old Aidan Stokes. So Marcucci went north on loan to IF Gnistan which is, according to Opta, nearly 4000 spots higher in the world rankings than RBNY 2. Despite the elevated level of play, Marcucci performed well enough to put Gnistan into position to make a run at the Europa League and - if Americans tracked the world game a little bit more - made RBNY look silly by exposing the team for not really having a plan for a clearly undersold goalkeeper. What’s Marcucci’s future look like heading into 2025? It’s difficult to say but his likelihood of becoming an MLS goalkeeper certainly went up, not down, after RBNY2 benched him.
81. Benny Diaz, 25 - FC Juarez (Mexico.1)
82. Christian Herrera, 27 - Colorado Springs Switchbacks
83. Tim Trilk, 26 - Chattanooga Red Wolves
84. Jared Mazzola, 25 - Sacramento Republic
85. Carlos Herrera, 27 - Monterey Bay FC
86. Daniel Kuzemka, 26 - Charleston Battery
87. Ethan Bandre, 26 - Colorado Rapids
88. Andrew Pannenberg, 26 - Carolina Core
89. Lars Helleren, 26 - Tacoma Defiance
90. Will Meyer, 26 - NYCFC II
One to Watch: Benny Diaz. Diaz’s career has zigzagged a good deal but he has fortunately picked up a solid amount of minutes along the way. Previously with El Paso and both Tijuana’s and Quertarto’s U20s, Diaz enjoyed an eleven-game run this fall FC Juarez’s first team, despite the lack of results during the two months. First-team minutes are near impossible to come by for young goalkeepers in Mexico and the lack of results likely won’t help Diaz’s cause moving forward.
91. Luis Zamudio, 26 - DC United
92. Jacob Castro, 24 - Seattle Sounders
93. Isaac Walker, 25 - Crown Legacy FC
94. Brooks Thompson, 22 - Hartford Athletic
95. Carlos Merancio, 26 - Orlando City
96. Jacob Jackson, 24 - San Jose Earthquakes
97. Trey Muse, 25 - Portland Timbers
98. Brady Scott, 25 - Los Angeles Galaxy
99. Carlos Avilez, 25 - CV Fuego FC
100. Hunter Morse, 26 - Cincinnati FC 2
One to Watch: Trey Muse. If you look up NCAA’s record books you’ll see Muse’s name littered across it in several categories for his successful runs with the Indiana Hoosiers. After Muse’s sophomore season, Seattle signed the homegrown goalkeeper in 2019 only to let the goalkeeper walk three years later, making fans wonder why the MLS side went out of their way to rob Muse of his last two years of college eligibility in the first place. In 2022, Muse landed with Loudon, had a brief loan with Memphis, then went to Charleston before heading to Portland at the start of 2024. After 120 professional starts, Muse is a well-seasoned veteran but is still searching for his first MLS appearance.