Lionel Messi or Luis Suárez: Who is Inter Miami’s MVP?

To have watched Messi play for Inter Miami in 2024 is to have watched the most efficient attacking player in MLS history.

Sure, the naked eye can draw something close to that conclusion simply by watching the ball fizz around in Miami’s final third, with the initial and final touch seeming to come from Messi’s otherworldly left foot more often than not. But I went back and combed through the data archives to confirm that, yes, Messi is one of one when it comes to his single-season production.

With his 15 goals and 11 primary assists this year, Messi is averaging a staggering 1.76 goal contributions (goals plus primary assists) per 90 minutes, based on data from FBref. Since the league’s first campaign way back in 1996, no player with at least 1,000 minutes in any single season has come even remotely close to that figure. Between Messi this season and Roy Lassiter, who led players at that minutes threshold in goal contributions in MLS’s first season with 1.08 per 90, Carlos Vela’s 2019 season is the one nearest to Messi. Vela averaged 1.45 goal contributions per 90 for LAFC that season.

Bob Bradley famously challenged Vela to be “as good as Messi” when the two were both in Los Angeles. Well, close but not quite.

Messi, when it comes to dominating every single minute when he’s on the field, is simply in his own stratosphere – not just in 2024, but in the 29 seasons of MLS’s existence.

On sheer efficiency alone, Messi is clearly Miami’s team MVP. There’s no doubt, however, that the fact that he’s played a relatively small share of Miami’s total regular season minutes hurts his case. Messi has needed others to cover for him this year. Still, the Argentine has played less than 400 fewer minutes than Suárez. The minutes totals for the two probably aren’t wildly different enough for Suárez to be considered Inter Miami’s MVP. When you compare Messi’s minutes played to some of this year’s other top league-wide MVP contenders, you might get a different story. But in the context of Miami? These two are in the same boat.

Now, I do want to note in this value-added discussion that Suárez may not have signed in Miami over the offseason without Messi’s presence. From a certain angle, Suárez’s success reflects even more positively on Messi’s team MVP case.

At the end of the day, though, the argument for Messi comes down to this: