The Big Lead

Lionel Messi won the MLS MVP award, but did he really deserve it?

By Joe Lago

Dec 4, 2024; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA; Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi (10) holds the London Donovan MVP Award during a presentation ceremony at Chase Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
Dec 4, 2024; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA; Inter Miami CF forward Lionel Messi (10) holds the London Donovan MVP Award during a presentation ceremony at Chase Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
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Can you be the Most Valuable Player of a league if you played only 56% of your team's regular-season games?

You definitely can if you're Lionel Messi.

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On Friday, Major League Soccer announced that Messi, the 37-year-old superstar of Inter Miami, won the 2024 MLS MVP Award in a vote by the media, players and club technical staff.

Messi was presented the award by MLS commissioner Don Garber on Wednesday in a ceremony at Inter Miami's Chase Field with his teammates in attendance.

"Truly, it is an honor for me to receive this award from all of you," Messi told the team.

"I'm very happy to be here every day," he added. "I'm very happy to be in this city, in this club that is growing."

Messi received 38.43% of the overall vote, beating the 33.70% received by Columbus Crew forward Cucho Hernandez and finishing first in balloting by the media (43.20%) and players (40.83%). Hernandez finished first in the clubs vote (37.50%).

The numbers compiled on the field also favored Messi. In his first full MLS season, he recorded the most goal contributions with 36 — 20 goals and 16 assists — for an Inter Miami squad that won the Supporters' Shield with a league-record 74 points on 22 wins and eight draws.

When it comes to "most valuable," though, does Messi really qualify?

A right ankle sprain in last summer's Copa America sidelined Messi for two months. While Messi was playing for Argentina and recovering from injury, Inter Miami won eight of its nine league matches, outscoring the opposition by a combined score of 22-8 in those eight victories.

Luis Suarez, one of Messi's former Barcelona teammates on Inter, capably shouldered the offensive burden and finished with the same number of goals (20) as Messi.

Hernandez amassed 19 goals and 14 assists across 27 games, numbers that were far and away the most on the Crew. Their second-leading scorer was Diego Rossi, who had 12 goals and 11 assists. Columbus needed every one of Hernandez's 33 goal contributions in order to finish second in the Eastern Conference behind Inter Miami with 66 points.

If Messi was healthy for the entire season, he very well might have re-written the MLS record book. But he did miss time. A lot of it. That's why a very valid case can be made for Hernandez being more valuable than the soccer GOAT for the 2024 MLS regular season.

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