HOUSTON (Oct. 23, 2025) – Houston Dynamo FC forward Lawrence Ennali was named as a finalist for the 2025 MLS Comeback Player of the Year award, the league announced today. The MLS Year-End Awards honor the league’s top performers during the regular season, with the winners set to be announced throughout the Audi 2025 MLS Cup Playoffs.
The German winger’s full comeback story was featured in an Apple TV feature this season – ‘The Return – Lawrence Ennali’. Part One of the feature is available HERE. Part Two of the feature is available HERE.
Minutes after scoring his debut Major League Soccer goal for the Dynamo and helping the team to a 2-0 road victory over LAFC in August 2024, Ennali fell to the pitch grabbing his knee in pain. Soon after, what was feared was confirmed – the German winger had torn his ACL and would miss the remainder of the season and the beginning of the next.
Despite the early setback in a new league and country, Ennali did not let the daunting task of recovery overcome him. Lifted by the foundation and support of the team around him, the now 23-year-old Berlin native immediately got to work rehabbing his injury.
Impressively, Ennali returned to the pitch in May 2025, exactly seven months after his knee injury, injecting a burst of speed and creativity into the Dynamo attack, while accounting for one goal and four assists in MLS play this season.
Ennali’s standout contribution of the season came in an explosive 4-3 victory over Western Conference winners San Diego FC in July Fourth Weekend. The German winger leveled the match in the 36th minute when he flashed his speed and chased down a clearance from Houston’s own half, controlling the ball at the top of the box and finishing towards the far post.
Houston signed Ennali on a full transfer from Górnik Zabrze in Poland in July 2024, marking the largest U22 initiative signing in club history for the Dynamo.
The finalists for the annual awards earned the highest average votes from MLS club technical staff, MLS first-team players and select media members, with each group accounting for 33.3 percent of the overall results.
