Atlanta United’s Leandro Gonzalez Pirez finished fourth in the voting for MLS Defender of the Year.

Sporting KC's Ike Opara was named the winner on Thursday.

Gonzalez Pirez, a native of Argentina, started 32 games and scored one goal with three assists. He finished with 66 tackles and a tackle success rate of 83.5 percent. He led the league in interceptions (98).

He was part of a group that posted 13 shutouts this season.

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A Korean Air plane takes off from Incheon International Airport in South Korea on Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. The plane is chartered to bring back Korean workers detained in an immigration raid in Georgia. (Yonhap via AP)

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Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

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