Inter Miami Superstar Lionel Messi Is First Back-to-Back MLS MVP

Best player. Best team. Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi is the unquestioned force in Major League Soccer right now, on a run like nobody else the league has ever seen.

The 38-year-old Argentine star – and captain of the MLS Cup champions – has become the first back-to-back MVP in MLS history, being announced Tuesday as this year’s winner of the league’s top individual honor.

It’s another first for Messi in what seems like a never-ending list of his career accomplishments and was widely expected, almost assumed, after he had a league-best 29 goals along with 19 assists during the regular season.

He also becomes just the second two-time MVP the league has ever seen, joining Preki, the winner of the award in 1997 and 2003. The other winners are all one-time MVP recipients.

"He was fantastic the whole season, with the numbers and also with the commitment," Inter Miami coach and longtime Messi teammate Javier Mascherano said.

Messi played in barely half of Inter Miami’s regular-season games in 2024, and that sparked some doubt about whether he deserved to win the MVP award.

He won a close vote last year. This year, there was no debate.

Messi got 70.4% of the total vote — the biggest winning total since Toronto's Sebastian Giovinco in 2015. San Diego’s Anders Dreyer was second with 11.2%, followed by LAFC’s Denis Bouanga (7.3%), Cincinnati’s Evander (4.8%) and Nashville’s Sam Surridge (2.4%).

"I think he’s the unicorn of unicorns," MLS Commissioner Don Garber said of Messi while attending an Inter Miami match earlier in this season’s playoffs. "You know, there’s something about the way he’s wired. He’s thinking about the game like nobody else ever has. His intensity and desire to win is what makes him the greatest of all time.