Vote 2022 LA Galaxy Breakout Player of the Year

The 2022 has officially come to a close. With LA Galaxy wasting no time in getting to work on the 2023, we want to take a moment longer to hand out some superlatives for the season completed. While it may not have ended the way the team would have hoped, there was still some positives to take from this campaign, as the team did improve from the year prior, with several players offering glimmers of hope for the season ahead.

It's rare to see a player cross rivalry lines, but that's exactly what midfielder Raheem Edwards did this season. After a 2021 campaign with the other LA team, Edwards came to the Galaxy looking to help reclaim old Galaxy glory. Off the pitch, Raheem said and did all the right things. Even calling out the rivals ahead of one of their matches, only to then show up on the pitch and help lead his side to a win. That moment alone solidified his cult-legend status within his new club. On the pitch, Edwards had himself a career season.

He set career highs in matches started (27), minutes played (2281), and equaled a career-high in assists finishing the season with six. He even managed to get on the scoresheet for the first time in a couple of seasons. His consistency, and ability to remain healthy really gave the Galaxy a boost in the middle of the pitch. His skills on the ball, and crisp passing, gave them another solid option in attack, which we saw on multiple occasions. It’s safe to say his first season on this side of LA was a success for him personally, now the hope is he can build on it and help achieve success as a club.

Speaking of having career years, Dejan Joveljic had himself just that in his second season with the Galaxy. The 23-year-old striker served as the most super of subs this year, almost always scoring once coming off the bench an into a match. Having started just seven of his 32 appearances, Dejan scored 11 goals, and had three assists in just 980 minutes played. As you might expect, his play had many asking — read as shouting — why the youngster wasn't a regular starter. That will almost assuredly change in 2023, with him emerging as the definite future of this franchise.

That glimmer of hope many fans may have while looking forward to 2023, is almost directly due to this next player. Almost unfair to include him as he was definitely the most talked about member of the Galaxy this season, despite only having been here long enough for half a cup of coffee. FC Barcelona product, Riqui Puig arrived during the summer window, and he arrived with hopes of saving the Galaxy season. While on the outside looking in on the playoffs, it was Puig’s arrival that served as the catalyst for what was a vastly improved Galaxy side to finish the season.

In just ten appearances, with nine starts, Puig netted three goals and racked up five assists in his short start with the G’s. More importantly than the filled up stat sheet, Puig was the spark that helped ignite a final push to end the season that saw the team not only get into the playoffs, but get into a spot that allowed them to host a match as well. His immediate chemistry with Chicharito was hard to ignore, as the two become one of the most electrifying strike-forces, overnight. Puig will undoubtedly be looking to build on his hot start, and with an entire off-season under his belt, will be aiming to get Galaxy right back to competing for the trophy that matters most.

Make your voices heard, and tell us who you think had the most impressive breakout year in 2022.