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Greatest participant. Greatest workforce. Lionel Messi is the unquestioned power in Main League Soccer proper now, on a run like no person else the league has ever seen.
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The 38-year-old Argentine star — and captain of the MLS Cup champions — has turn into the primary back-to-back MVP in MLS historical past, getting introduced Tuesday as this 12 months’s winner of the league’s prime particular person honor.
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA – DECEMBER 09: Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami CF walks off the sphere after receiving the 2025 Landon Donovan MLS MVP trophy at Chase Stadium on December 09, 2025 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Picture by Megan Briggs/Getty Photos)
It’s one other first for Messi in what looks as if a unending checklist of his profession accomplishments and was broadly anticipated, nearly assumed after he had a league-best 29 targets together with 19 assists in the course of the common season.
He additionally turns into simply the second two-time MVP the league has ever seen, becoming a member of Preki, the winner of the award in 1997 and 2003. The opposite winners are all one-time MVP recipients.
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“He was incredible the entire season, with the numbers and likewise with the dedication,” Inter Miami coach and longtime Messi teammate Javier Mascherano stated.
Messi performed in exactly half of Inter Miami’s regular-season video games in 2024, and that sparked some doubt as as to whether he deserved to win the MVP award.
He received a detailed vote final 12 months. This 12 months, there was no debate.
Messi obtained 70.4% of the whole vote — the largest profitable whole since Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco in 2015. San Diego’s Anders Dreyer was second with 11.2%, adopted by LAFC’s Denis Bouanga (7.3%), Cincinnati’s Evander (4.8%) and Nashville’s Sam Surridge (2.4%).
“I feel he’s the unicorn of unicorns,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated of Messi whereas attending an Inter Miami match earlier on this season’s playoffs. “You understand, there’s one thing about the way in which he’s wired. He’s eager about the sport like no person else ever has. His depth and want to win is what makes him the best of all time. There are loads of actually aggressive gamers, however he has this particular sauce, this dynamic that has him so targeted on doing what he must do to win video games.”
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This award joins dozens of different particular person honors in Messi’s profession, together with eight Ballon d’Or titles, eight Pichichi trophies as La Liga’s prime scorer, six La Liga finest participant nods, three Greatest FIFA Males’s Participant awards, three UEFA Males’s Participant of the Yr wins, two FIFA World Cup Golden Balls and no fewer than 15 picks as Argentina’s finest participant in a given 12 months. He’s additionally been a part of profitable 47 trophies for membership and nation — together with the 2022 World Cup — making him probably the most embellished participant the lads’s sport has ever seen.
“The truth,” Mascherano stated because the common season was ending, “is that Leo clears all doubts.”
Messi turns into the sixth participant in MLS historical past to win MVP and a championship in the identical season. Of the earlier 5, solely Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez in 2018 received MVP, a title and the Golden Boot because the league’s scoring champion all in the identical 12 months, one other hat trick of types that Messi achieved in 2025.
Certainly, there was nobody like him — in MLS for sure, and fairly probably wherever.
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Neglect profitable back-to-back MVPs. There have been solely 4 gamers in MLS historical past — Carlos Valderrama in 1996 and 1997, Marco Etcheverry in 1998 and 1999, David Villa in 2016 and 2017, and Martinez in 2018 and 2019 — to win the award one 12 months after which even be a finalist for MVP within the following season.
And Messi isn’t planning on leaving Miami anytime quickly. He’s signed a three-year extension, that means he’ll be there when Inter Miami — a franchise that has seen its worth explode since his arrival 2½ years in the past — opens its new stadium close to Miami Worldwide Airport subsequent season.
“When Lionel Messi made MLS his league of selection, it marked a turning level — not only for Inter Miami, however for our total sport in North America,” Garber stated when the contract was introduced. “Since then, we’ve witnessed one thing actually historic: the best participant of all time bringing world consideration to our league. We’re thrilled that Leo has chosen to remain and proceed his profession with Inter Miami.”
The phenomenon of getting a back-to-back MVP has occurred in every of the opposite main U.S. professional sports activities leagues up to now loads of instances, with the latest occasion of every taking place pretty not too long ago.
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In Main League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Choose have received the Nationwide League and American League MVP awards, respectively, in every of the final two seasons; Ohtani received the AL MVP award with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023 as nicely.
A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces has received the WNBA’s MVP award in every of the final two years. Denver’s Nikola Jokic was the latest NBA participant to win MVP back-to-back, doing so in 2021 and 2022. Aaron Rodgers — then of Inexperienced Bay — received two straight NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021, and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin received the NHL’s Hart Trophy in 2008 and 2009 for the latest incidence of somebody claiming that award in consecutive years.
However by no means in MLS — till now.