Lionel Messi is nominated for MLS’ MVP award, but should he be? Our writers debate whether the Inter Miami star deserves to win
Lionel Messi making it onto the shortlist for this year’s MLS MVP award has sparked major controversy.
Not so much due to his inclusion, but because the Inter Miami superstar is the overwhelming favorite to be crowned winner.
After only featuring 18 times for Miami so far in the regular season, many believe Messi is not deserving of an award handed out to the league’s best player over the course of an entire campaign.
Others, however, are convinced he is the most obvious candidate after registering 17 goals and 15 assists in just 1,453 minutes of action.
So should Messi be named MVP? DailyMail.com writers have made the case for and against Leo adding yet another honor to his collection.
The case against Messi (Jake Fenner)
First off, it needs to be made clear that Lionel Messi has been – by far and away – the best player in terms of pure scoring output in MLS this season. Messi’s hit double digits in both goals (17) and assists (10), his 1.77 goals and assists per 90 is over 0.5 points better than everyone else in the league, and he’s done all of that while only playing just 18 games.
Which is exactly why he should not win the 2024 MLS Most Valuable Player Award.
Take a look at the name of that award. ‘Most Valuable’ does not mean ‘Best Player’. Sure, by pure average goal contributions, Messi has the field beat – but he’s missed A LOT of time.
There’s a serious argument to be made that due to all the injuries he’s accumulated and all the time he’s missed, Messi’s impact on Inter Miami has not been as strong as the rest of his teammates. At the time of publication, Messi’s played less than 1,500 minutes for the Herons. How valuable can a player be if he’s been off the field for slightly less than half the games his team has played?
Put it this way. In the 18 games Messi has played, he’s won 11 games, drawn six, and lost one for a total of 39 points and 2.16 points per game.. Without him, Inter Miami has won 10 games, drawn 2, and lost three. More losses, but a similar points-per-game mark at 2.13.
This is to illustrate the point that even without their best player, Inter Miami has done perfectly fine in Messi’s absence. His value to the team is there, but it’s not as high as other players throughout the league.
Take Christian Benteke at DC United as a perfect example. The Screaming Eagles are (at the time of publication) tied on points and in potential danger of falling out of the playoffs entirely – with a shocking -15 goal difference. But Benteke has scored 23 of DC’s 52 goals this season – making him the likely winner of the league’s golden boot and being (arguably) the main reason why the team has any chance of making MLS Cup Playoffs.
Other players like Evander at the Portland Timbers (15G+18a), Cucho Hernandez of the high-flying Columbus Crew (19G+13a), or Luciano Acosta of FC Cincinnati (league leader in goals+assists with 33 combined) have all played significantly more minutes than Messi and have had just as key a role in their respective sides’ push for the playoffs.
Even Messi’s teammate at Inter Miami, Luis Suarez, has scored more goals than the Argentine while logging nearly 400 more minutes than him this season. He’s carried the load while Messi has been absent and deserves a shout for MVP.
Do I expect Lionel Messi to win the award? Yes, because by average he’s the best player in the league this year. But if I was voting, I could not in good consciousness cast my ballot for a player who has been absent for so long considering there are so many others who have done just as well (if not better) for their teams.
