Major League Soccer’s awards season is approaching its finale as the Most Valuable Player for 2024 is set to be announced soon, with Lionel Messi among the favourites.
By James Nalton
There have been several standout players across the league this year, from new signings to standout young players; and comebacks to defensive performances.
Combining the data with the eye test, here is a look at the players in each category, and an assessment of the award winners already announced.
Messi for MVP?
The headline award of the season is the only one for which the winner has yet to be announced.
A lot of the data suggests Lionel Messi is the obvious choice for this award, but it’s not that simple.
He has the highest average FotMob rating, is second in the goalscoring charts, is joint top for goals and assists combined, averages more than one goal per 90 minutes, and leads the way for expected goals plus expected assists per 90.
Despite all of this, his lack of game time has left the MVP award discussion open to other contenders who have appeared more regularly throughout the season. The most notable among these is the regularly impressive Cucho Hernández of Columbus Crew, while there are also outside shouts for Golden Boot winner Christian Benteke of DC Untied, Evander of Portland, and Messi’s Inter Miami teammate Luis Suárez.
Messi started just 15 of his team’s 34 regular season games (the awards are judged on the regular season and not the playoffs) and made four appearances off the bench.
There was a point as the season came to a close when he hadn’t played the required amount of games or minutes to appear on many statistical leaderboards.
A flurry of appearances towards the end of the season remedied that, and scoring eight goals in seven appearances to round off the campaign also helped.
Those per 90 numbers show how good he’s been in the games he has played. His goals per 90 of 1.21 and his goals plus assists per 90 of 1.82 are the highest in MLS regular season history.
It has been more of the same Messi we’ve been used to seeing light up games with Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, and Argentina.
Despite playing in a lower standard of league, his performances have been so good that he can count himself unlucky not to have been included on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or, especially as he has the requisite big international tournament honour to his name in 2024 after winning Copa America with Argentina.
Coach of the Year
This is the second big award that came down to a choice between Columbus Crew and Inter Miami.
Tata Martino deserves credit for guiding Inter Miami through a run of nine games without Messi and winning eight of them.
Regardless of the talent at his disposal, winning the MLS Supporters’ Shield with a record-breaking points total is no easy feat.
It’s also easy to forget that such a season for Inter Miami was not widely predicted. Of the 17 experts asked by the official MLS website for their predictions at the start of the season, 14 had Inter Miami finishing between 3rd and 7th in the Eastern Conference, and only three had them winning it.
This is why the eventual winner, Columbus Crew’s Wilfried Nancy, was not the most obvious choice for some.
The Crew won the MLS Cup last season and the Leagues Cup in 2024, but these two trophies are not quite enough to call them an all-time great MLS team. That said, this Crew side can comfortably be called one of the best teams we’ve ever seen in MLS, and much of this is down to the coaching of Nancy and the way the players have responded to it.
They also managed to maintain a challenge in the league for much of the season while also embarking on deep runs in the Concacaf Champions League and Leagues Cup, which is not an easy feat with MLS roster restrictions.
If there’s one non-Messi game you’d want to watch each week in MLS (and as mentioned earlier, there were quite a few of those) it would be Nancy’s Columbus Crew.
They have transcended the league and are simply a great team to watch in world football. Few MLS teams have ever managed this, and this is why Nancy deserves the award.
Defender of the Year
Columbus Crew’s style of play has also influenced Defender of the Year voting and led to many a debate on what defines good defending.
The Crew’s Steven Moreira would have been my pick and eventually won the award, but he was not an obvious choice when it came to defensive work.
Given this award also includes full-backs, many of whose defensive duties became a secondary part of their game long ago, giving it to a central defender would initially seem like a safe, more traditional option.
But Moreira’s style of play in the Crew setup — in which he’s involved in the build-up play and bursting forward from his position as a right centre-back in a three — leads to a data profile that doesn’t look much like a defender.
The Crew’s control of possession also means there isn’t as much traditional defensive work to do in areas such as tackling and intercepting.
Seattle centre-backs Yeimar Gómez Andrade and Jackson Regen were more obvious candidates from a purely defensive standpoint. Yeimar led MLS for interceptions (63 in 30 starts) and Seattle had the best defence in the league.
Defensive data alone would see the award go to Yeimar, and it would be deserved, but Moreira emerging as the winner shows there are more ways to defend with the ball in the modern game.
Goalkeeper of the Year
The goalkeeper award picks itself both from the eye test and from the stats.
For much of the season, New York City’s number one Matt Freese was neck and neck with Kristijan Kahlina but the Charlotte man continued his extraordinary form right until the end.
Bafflingly, neither Freese nor Kahlina made the MLS All-Star game this season, while Freese didn’t make the three finalists for goalkeeper of the year.
Maybe goalkeeping is a blind spot for MLS judges, but there was no doubting who would eventually win the award.
That said, it’s a surprise Kahlina only gained 35% of the overall vote from players, clubs, and the media combined. Hugo Lloris of Los Angeles FC got the highest percentage of a the player vote with 16% with Kahlina at just 11%.
Newcomer of the Year
This award was between Gabriel Pec of LA Galaxy and Inter Miami’s Suárez.
Pec won out thanks to a highly productive season, easily reaching double figures for goals and assists, with 19 goals and 15 assists so far as the Galaxy continue in the playoffs.
The Brazilian played a big role in LA Galaxy’s transformation this season, which was arguably more impressive than Inter Miami’s.
Pec has the fourth-highest average rating in MLS, behind Messi, teammate Ricqui Puig, and Evander.
Young Player of the Year
Andres Gomes would likely have been the young player of the year had he not left Real Salt Lake midway through the season.
His teammate Diego Luna eventually, and deservedly, won the award for being part of the RSL team that maintained a good position in the West despite losing Gomes and a late downturn in form from top scorer Cristian Arango.
However, the eligible player with the highest average rating is Philadelphia Union’s Jack McGlynn. The creative midfielder who likes to shoot from long range was probably overlooked due to the Union’s disappointing season and will be hoping he and his team can produce better results in 2025.
Comeback Player of the Year
This is not an award to be judged on statistics as it’s often about a player overcoming a difficult period, usually an injury, and making a successful return.
My vote would have gone to Inter Miami’s Ian Fray, who made 14 appearances and played 643 minutes this season after coming back from three serious knee injuries.
Sadly, Fray picked up a meniscus injury in the playoffs, but given the timing of it before the off-season break, he should be back next year.
The eventual winner, Lewis Morgan of the New York Red Bulls, had to overcome his own injury issues.
It was almost miraculous that he returned in 2024 looking like the player he was prior to a hip operation in September 2023 that, according to MLS, gave him just a 20-25% chance of returning to peak performance. There was even a 15% chance that he might not play again.
His performances were so good, they earned him regular call-ups to the Scotland squad which can be difficult when playing in a non-European league like MLS.
Such a comeback was not an easy one and the award was fully deserved. The role he’s played for the team as they make their unlikely playoff run further reinforces this.
(Cover Image from IMAGO)
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