Lionel Messi won Major League Soccer’s 2024 Most Valuable Player award despite missing half the MLS season due to injury, weight management and international duty.
MLS announced Friday that Messi earned the honor, surpassing Columbus Crew forward Cucho Hernandez in his first full season with Inter Miami.
Messi won 38.4% of the total vote while Cucho took 33.7%; No other player earned more than 10%.
Messi was the choice of 40.8% of his teammates, 43.2% of select media members and 31.3% of the club’s technical staff – the only one of the three groups, each of which had 33.3% of the weighted votes, not to succeed. Is possible. Messi is his top choice.
Portland Timbers forward Evander finished third with 9.2% of the votes; D.C. United striker Christian Benteke, the league’s top goalscorer, finished fourth with 7.1%; Messi’s Inter Miami teammate and longtime friend Luis Suarez came in fifth with 2.2%.
Messi won the award because he scored 20 goals and 11 assists in the 19 MLS regular season games he played. He started only 15 games and logged only 47% of available minutes, but he still scored more goals than anyone else in the league – even compared to those who played all 34 regular-season games. Played matches.
His opponents cited his frequent absences from the MVP debate. Messi missed time with the Argentina national team in the Copa América in June and July due to a muscle injury in the spring, and missed the Copa América final in August and September due to an ankle injury.
Critics also noted that Inter Miami’s results without Messi (2.13 points per game) were almost as good as with him (2.21 PPG).
But Messi’s case was clear. From his 2023 arrival to 2024, he transformed Inter Miami from a cellar-dweller into the league’s best team. In 2024, he broke the MLS single-season points record and won the Supporters’ Shield with a few weeks remaining.
And individually, Messi’s half-season still ranks among the best full seasons in league history. Taking into account his five secondary assists – which MLS counts, but most of global football does not – Messi’s 36 goal contributions were the fifth-most in a single MLS campaign.
His contribution of 2.2 goals per 90 minutes was, of course, the highest ever in league history. Removing secondary assists, his rate was still an absurd 1.87 per 90 – more than half a goal better than the single-season rate of any other player in MLS history. Per FBrefIn fact, in many of the league’s last 28 seasons, Messi’s rate would have been more than double that of the league leader.
So he won the MVP award – although not by much. His margin was the lowest of any MLS MVP in the last decade.
He is believed to be the first player in the history of major American sports to win MVP after starting less than half of his team’s games and missing more than 40% of them (except for baseball pitchers, who typically But only starts once every five games) .
Messi’s playoff run ended early with a stunning upset in the first round at the hands of Atlanta United. But MVP is a regular season award. And in 34 matches, Messi had 19 of the most valuable.
Earlier this week he was presented with the MVP trophy at Inter Miami’s Chase Stadium. In a video distributed by MLS, he arrived at the stadium to meet MLS Commissioner Don Garber and about 100 kids from Inter Miami’s youth teams, all wearing their pink kits and chanting “MVP.”
In a brief speech, Messi called the award and reception an “honor”, and told the children: “I would have liked to receive this award in another situation, if I could have played. [MLS Cup] Last [this] Saturday. But that’s what football is all about, overcoming yourself every day. We had a big dream to become MLS champions this year. “It didn’t happen, but we will come back stronger to try again next year.”