Lionel Messi has played 49% of Inter Miami’s 2024 MLS season, and the entire history of U.S. professional sport suggests that he should, therefore, not win MLS MVP.
No player in the history of the major leagues has ever missed nearly half a season and still been named the “Most Valuable Player.” NFL MVPs have always played at least 12 of 16 games. In baseball, non-pitchers have always played more than 100.
In basketball, Bill Walton won the NBA’s 1978 award despite missing 24 of 82 games — and, like Messi, only playing 49% of available minutes — but the NBA recently codified a rule that, if copied by Major League Soccer, would actually disqualify Messi: Players must appear in at least 65 games to be eligible for the MVP award.
And yet, with two weeks to go, Messi isn’t just a contender for the MLS award; he should be the runaway favorite.
He’s the favorite because he’s packed an entire season of MVP production into his 15 starts and two substitute appearances; but also because his mere presence has completely transformed Inter Miami from a laughingstock, and MLS’ worst team, to perhaps its best ever.
He is, literally, and obviously, by a wide margin, the league’s “most valuable player.”
The numbers
Statistically, Messi hasn’t just been the league’s best player on a per-game basis; he’s been the most prolific and productive player, period.
In his 17 games, he’s scored 17 goals and assisted 15. Those 32 goal contributions are the joint-second-most in MLS, one behind Portland’s Evander (15G, 18A), as many as FC Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta (13G, 19A), more than Columbus Crew forward Cucho Hernández (17G, 13A) — and more than Acosta recorded last season when he ran away with the 2023 MVP award.
Denis Bouanga and Chicho Arango, two other MVP contenders, are close behind them. Both, like Acosta and Evander, and like most stars, have started 25-plus games and played more than 2,100 minutes.
Messi, on the other hand, has compiled those numbers in 1,424 minutes.
He was injured in March, then away for the Copa América in June, then injured again in July and August. And yes, his unavailability is a knock on his MVP candidacy. When he’s not on the field, he can’t be “valuable” in the traditional sense of the word — which is why MVP voters typically value raw stats, and total…