Messi Rewrites MLS History with Stunning Second Straight MVP Win

Lionel Messi secured his second straight MLS MVP on Tuesday, becoming the first player in league history to do so. He closed the regular season with 29 goals and 19 assists, driving Inter Miami’s campaign and reinforcing his control over the league at age 38.

Inter Miami leaned on him all year. He delivered 29 goals, the fourth-highest total in league history, and added 19 assists that often decided close games. Those contributions shifted matches on their own, and you could sense their impact from the touchline. When the scoreboard flashed another Messi strike, the benches reacted before the crowd even finished roaring.

Messi said he was grateful, though he kept circling back to the squad behind him. “I’m happy to receive this award and be the first in the history of this league to win it in two consecutive years,” he said. Then he pointed straight to the dressing room. Individual trophies matter, but he insisted this one belongs to the group that carried Inter Miami to the MLS Cup.

A Season That Pushed Miami to New Heights

It’s always nice to be recognised, but I want to share it with my teammates, he expressed. The Golden Boot also ended up in his hands, though he called it a product of finishing moves the rest of the squad built.

Before him, only one player had won two MVP awards: Preki in 1997 and 2003. Messi matched that feat and then went one better, becoming the first to win his two MVPs in consecutive seasons.

His previous campaign set the stage. In 2024, he posted 20 goals and 16 assists in just 19 matches, a run that jolted Miami’s rise. Since arriving from Paris Saint-Germain in July 2023, he has changed the club’s ceiling. First came the Leagues Cup. Then the 2024 Supporters’ Shield with a league-best 74 points. 

Few thought Messi would stay this sharp at this stage. Yet he keeps bending MLS to his pace, forcing teams to rethink everything. The MVP didn’t feel like some routine handout. It felt like proof that even at 38, he still sets the tone, the talk, and, most times, the outcome. And if he keeps turning up with nights like this, the list of records waiting for him won’t stop anytime soon.