Miami
\nInter Miami star Lionel Messi landed a spot on the list of finalists for the 2024 Major League Soccer\u2019s \u2018Most Valuable Player\u2019 (MVP) award, earning his second nomination for the award since joining the league in July 2023.
\nThe Argentine football legend joined his Inter Miami teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez on the list of finalists for the award which also included Columbus Crew\u2019s Cucho Hern\u00e1ndez, Portland Timbers\u2019 Evander and DC United\u2019s Christian Benteke, ESPN reported.
\nEach player met the new qualifying regulations that require a minimum of 1,000 minutes played in the regular season campaign.
\nThe 36-year-old former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) star failed to win the award last season but he is being considered the leading candidate for the award this year, after contributing 20 goals and 16 assists in just 19 games.
\nDespite concerns over his lack of participation throughout the 34-match campaign, playing only 55% of games, teammate Jordi Alba has insisted that Messi must win MVP.
\n\u201cRegarding Leo, I repeat myself, every time you ask me, I think he deserves all the awards they can give him, I think he is the best player in the world, with a lot of intensity compared to the rest and until he retires,\u201d he said on Friday.
\n\u201cI\u2019m sure he\u2019ll win the MVP and if he doesn\u2019t win it, well, it\u2019s no longer anyone\u2019s decision, it\u2019s the people who vote but hey, for me he\u2019s the best.\u201d
\nMessi\u2019s performance in 2024 led his MLS club to secure the Supporters\u2019 Shield, breaking the league record for most points in a single season.
\nJoining him in the spotlight is his former Barcelona teammate, Suarez, who netted 20 goals and provided nine assists in 27 matches during his inaugural MLS campaign after signing in December 2023.
\nThe 37-year-old Uruguayan footballer\u2019s impressive debut has also earned him a spot as a finalist for Newcomer of the Year award.
\nTogether, the dynamic duo has combined for 40 of the team\u2019s 79 goals this season.
\nFurthermore, finalists for MLS Newcomer of the Year include FC Cincinnati\u2019s Luca Orellano, LA Galaxy\u2019s Gabriel Pec and Inter Miami\u2019s Su\u00e1rez.
\nMeanwhile, Inter Miami\u2019s Alba, Columbus Crew\u2019s Steven Moreira and Seattle Sounders\u2019 Jackson Ragen were named as finalists for Defender of the Year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Miami Inter Miami star Lionel Messi landed a spot on the list of finalists for the 2024 Major League Soccer\u2019s \u2018Most Valuable Player\u2019 (MVP) award, earning his second nomination for the award since joining the league in July 2023. The Argentine football legend joined his Inter Miami teammate Luis Su\u00e1rez on the list of finalists …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":72099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72066"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72101,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72066\/revisions\/72101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}