With another season in the bag for Minnesota United fans, the Dark Clouds supporters group held its annual end of the year party and fundraiser. Among the award winners were Player of the Year Bobby Shuttleworth and Newcomer of the Year Jérôme Thiesson.
The event held at Lake Monster Brewery included a silent auction that raised more than $2,600 (the final count has not been tallied) for The Sanneh Foundation. Among the items up for bid was a large number of former head coach Carl Craig’s old gear and signed Thiesson gear, including the boots he recently scored with.
The night culminated with a number of awards, including the Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards for Shuttleworth and Thiesson. The Swiss Thiesson was in attendance and gave a brief speech thanking the crowd.
“This will be the only award I will ever win,” he joked, “because actually I’m not a really good soccer player. You guys just didn’t get it yet.” He also spoke for the rest of the team, thanking the fans and saying it was an “incredible year for all of us.”
10. @j_thiesson gave us a few words: pic.twitter.com/eOwrTrtMfW
— Two United Fans✌️???? (@TwoUnitedFans) October 25, 2017
Among the other award winners was FiftyFive.One’s own Brian Quarstad who was given the Buzz Lagos Lifetime Achievement Award for his long-time work in writing about and covering Minnesota soccer.
The winner of the Jackass of the Year award was out-going president of the Dark Clouds Jim Oliver, who served as president since 2014. The joint winners of the Iron Skillet award were Ben Krouse-Gagne and Phil Cross who coordinated all the away travel for 275 people and 800 tickets.
The Dark Clouds created a new award this season in memory of longtime Minnesota soccer supporter Tom Donovan who passed earlier this year. The Tom Donovan award went to Andy Lovgren, who traveled to eight away matches this season.
In addition to the Dark Clouds’ fundraising efforts, the Red Loons announced that they had raised more than $1,700 for two charities: the International Institute of Minnesota (which serves refugees) and Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en Lucha (which advocates for workers).
.@RedLoons pledged $1,713.85 to local charities based on the facial expression of #MNUFC players in the squad photo for each match. ????+????=????
— Kate “Lady Emu” Sophia (@kasuso) October 25, 2017
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