Lionel Messi has only needed four games in Major League Soccer (MLS) to qualify to be named most valuable player. The American league announced the list of 30 candidates for the Landon Donovan Award, the league’s regular season MVP award, which included the Argentinian star.
The Inter Miami forward will compete for the award with other players who had terrific seasons, such as Messi’s fellow Argentine Thiago Almada (Atlanta United) and teammate Sergio Busquets.
To win the Landon Donovan Award, Messi still has three games left with Inter Miami to convince the voters, who include players, coaches, general managers and journalists who covered the MLS regular season. The vote will take place between Oct. 10 and 23.
In those three remaining games, Messi will face FC Cincinnati (Oct. 7) and Charlotte FC on two occasions (Oct. 18 and 21).
In the four regular season games he played with Inter Miami, Messi scored 1 goal and recorded 2 assists. Taking into account the rest of the competitions, he has a total of 11 goals and 5 assists in 12 games.
