Inter Miami CF captain Lionel Messi was named the 2025 MLS MVP on Tuesday, becoming the first player in league history to win the award in two consecutive seasons.
Messi is also only the second player to ever win the trophy twice, joining Preki (Predrag Radosavljević) who won the award in 1997 and 2003.
The Inter Miami captain led the league with a total of 29 goals in 28 games to clinch the 2025 Golden Boot and help Inter Miami to a third-place finish in the Eastern Conference. He added 19 assists. The Argentina forward now stands as the only player in MLS history to record at least 36 goal contributions in a single season on multiple occasions, doing so in 2024 and 2025.
He added six goals and nine assists in the playoffs as Miami went on to win its first MLS Cup with a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at Chase Stadium on Dec. 6.
Messi beat out finalists Anders Dreyer, Denis Bouanga, Evander and Sam Surridge by earning 70.43% of the total votes. Media, players and clubs participate in the MVP voting.
The World Cup winner received 83.05% of the media vote, 55.17% of the player vote and 73.08% of the club vote to heavily trump the other candidates.
Since joining the club in the summer of 2023, Messi has led Inter Miami to the inaugural Leagues Cup trophy, the 2024 Supporters’ Shield, helped set the record for most points recorded in a single season and now the ultimate with the league title.
Individually, he won the 2023 Newcomer of the Year award, the 2025 Golden Boot and now the 2024 and 2025 MLS MVP trophies.
