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’s inclusion on the shortlist for this year’s MLS MVP award has sparked major controversy.

Not so much because of his participation, but because the Inter Miami superstar is the overwhelming favorite to be crowned the winner.

Having made just 18 appearances for Miami so far in the regular season, many believe Messi does not deserve an award given to the league’s best player over the course of an entire season.

Others, however, believe he is the most likely candidate, having scored 17 goals and provided 15 assists in just 1,453 minutes of action.

Should Messi be named MVP then? Writers at DailyMail.com have argued for and against Leo adding another honor to his collection.

The case against Messi (Jake Fenner)

Firstly, it should be made clear that Lionel Messi has been by far the best player in terms of pure goal-scoring ability in MLS this season. Messi’s double figures in both goals (17) and assists (10), his 1.77 goals and assists per 90 are over 0.5 points better than anyone else in the league, and he’s done all that while playing just 18 games .

That’s exactly why he shouldn’t win the 2024 MLS Most Valuable Player Award.

Look at the name of that award. ‘Most Valuable’ does not mean ‘Best Player’. Sure, based on pure average goals, Messi got the win, but he missed a LOT of time.

A serious argument can be made that because of all the injuries he’s suffered and all the time he’s missed, Messi’s impact on Inter Miami hasn’t been as strong as that of the rest of his teammates. At the time of publication, Messi has played less than 1,500 minutes for the Herons. How valuable can a player be if he has been off the field for just under half of the games his team has played?

Put it like this. In the 18 matches that Messi has played, he has won 11 matches, drawn six and lost one, for a total of 39 points and 2.16 points per match. Without him, Inter Miami has won ten games, drawn two and lost three. More losses, but a similar number of points per match: 2.13.

Messi has played less than 1,500 minutes due to injury problems and international duties

Miami has rarely been hit without the 37-year-old, winning 10 of 15 in his absence

This illustrates the point that Inter Miami, even without their best player, has done well in Messi’s absence. His value to the team is there, but not as high as other players in the league.

Take Christian Benteke at DC United as a perfect example. The Screaming Eagles are (at time of publication) level on points and in potential danger of falling out of the play-offs 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 (arguably) the biggest reason the team has any chance of making the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Other players like Evander with 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 played an equally important role in their respective sides’ push for the play-offs.

Even Messi’s teammate at Inter Miami, Luis Suarez, has scored more goals than the Argentine, logging almost 400 more minutes than him this season. He has carried the load in Messi’s absence and deserves a shout out for MVP.

Do I expect Lionel Messi to win the award? Yes, because on average he is the best player in the league this year. But if I were going to vote, I couldn’t in good conscience cast my vote for a player who has been absent for so long, as there are so many others who have done just as well (if not better) for their teams.

Luciano Acosta has the most combined goals and assists this season with 33 for FC Cincinnati

The case for Messi (Oliver Salt)

Even combining club football with a hectic international schedule and various fitness issues, 37-year-old Lionel Messi is still by some distance the most valuable player in Major League Soccer.

His numbers speak for themselves. In just 1,453 minutes of action this season for Eastern Conference leaders Inter Miami, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has still contributed 32 goals, which works out to around one goal every 45 minutes.

The only players to have produced more goals so far in 2024 are FC Cincinnati’s Luciano Acosta (34) and Portland Timbers’ Evander (33). Yet Acosta has done so in a span of 2,617 minutes, while Evander has played 2,369 minutes.

That equates to one goal per 72 minutes for Evander, who at 26 is eight years Messi’s junior, and one per 77 for Acosta, who at 30 is still in his prime.

Considering the injury problems he continues to face after recently turning 37, it speaks volumes about the unparalleled impact Messi continues to have on the pitch in MLS that his attacking output is head and shoulders the best in the league .

But Messi is averaging a goal every 45 minutes, which is by far the best in MLS

Cucho Hernandez (left) and Evander (right) contribute on average every 64 and 72 minutes

It is unthinkable to give an award to the most valuable player in MLS and snub Messi

Yeah, he hasn’t been all that heavily involved with Miami this season. But it is not Messi’s fault that he remains captain of Argentina, a task that has forced him to miss five games in 2024 alone. Evander and Acosta, meanwhile, don’t even deserve a call-up for Brazil and Argentina respectively.

Even Columbus’ Cucho Hernandez, who has also scored 32 goals and played 2,056 minutes this season, hasn’t played for Colombia since 2023.

Putting aside his status as one of the most marketable players in MLS history, it is unthinkable to give an award to the most valuable commodity in the league and dismiss Messi, given the value that he still proves it on the field.

When he is fit and not on an international mission, the great Barcelona player remains the undisputed king of the division, both athletically and commercially.

He is the only logical choice for the coveted award.