Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami celebrates after a goal scored during the first half of the match against Nashville SC on Saturday.
Getty Images
While Lionel Messi ended up comfortably winning the MLS Golden Boot, completing a hat trick on Saturday night to finish on 29 goals, officially he fell five goals and one goal contribution shy of matching Carlos Vela’s historic 2019 campaign.
Vela had an MLS record 34 goals and 49 goal contributions (goals plus assists) for LAFC that season, in what will still be officially recognized officially as the most productive season by an MLS attacker in the league’s 30-year history.
But a closer look at the numbers suggests what Messi accomplished in 2025 was more impressive and should be considered the greatest attacking season in MLS history.
Here are three reasons why:
Padded With Penalties
You’ll find varying opinions on how much credit players should receive for scoring penalty kicks. There’s no denying that converting penalties is a skill. That said, the statistics across that game show that penalties are converted about 77% of the time, a far greater rate than any other kind of regular chance. And often the player taking the penalty has little to do with earning it.
And if you believe penalties artificially pad goal-scoring stats, then the only conclusion is that Messi had the better season, since only one of his 29 goals came from the spot. In fact, his 28 non-penalty goals are the most ever scored by an MLS player.
Most non-penalty MLS goals, single season
1. Lionel Messi: 28 (2025)
T2. Carlos Vela: 25 (2019)
T2. Mamadou Diallo: 25 (2000)
T2. Stern John: 25 (1998)
T5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 24 (2019)
T5. Bradley Wright-Phillips: 24 (2016)
T5. Roy Lassiter: 24 (1996)
Previously Vela’s 25 non-penalty goals in 2019 only put him in a three-way tie for league record in that category.
In terms of total non-penalty goals contributions, Messi’s 47 this season put him well clear of Vela’s 39 for the MLS record in that metric.
Secondary Assist Saga
Additionally, Messi would’ve already overtaken Vela’s goal contributions record were any league other than MLS keeping the statistics.
Both Vela’s tally of 49 goal contributions in 2019 and Messi’s total of 48 in 2025 are based on the league’s practice of crediting players with a secondary assist for the second-to-last pass leading to a goal.
Goal contributions, primary assists only
Lionel Messi, 2025: 45 (29 g, 16a)
Carlos Vela, 2019: 44 (34g, 10a)
It’s a common practice in ice hockey, including in the National Hockey League. But the overwhelming majority of other soccer leagues only count primary assists – i.e. the final pass before a goal – as an official stat.
And if you only look at stats from Messi and Vela’s historic seasons via sites like FBref.com, who record only primary assists in keeping with the global standard, then it’s Messi whose 45 goal contributions in 2025 lead Vela’s 44 goal contributions in 2018.
Difficulty, Efficiency Considerations
A third consideration is that the quality of MLS is not static, as the league continues to grow in comparison to global norms.
Exact league-to-league comparisons are impossible. But the financial data makes it clear the overall quality of MLS has risen significantly in the last six years. According to Transfermarkt, the average MLS squad value has jumped 81.3% over the past six years, a rate well above inflation over the same span.
MLS average squad values
2019: $29.36 million
2025: $53.21 million
Additionally, Messi’s MLS schedule has come against mostly Eastern Conference opponents in what statistically was one of the most difficult conferences to navigate in MLS history.
Chicago and Orlando will meet in the Eastern Conference wild card match despite earning 53 points. That haul would have been good enough for third and fourth place in the 2019 Western Conference table.
And while Messi played in nine more MLS matches in 2025 than in 2024, he still played more than 300 minutes fewer than Vela in 2019, meaning he was more efficient in his production in terms of overall contributions.
Goal contributions per 90 minutes
Messi, 2025: 1.78
Vela, 2019: 1.62
None of that will change the official record books. But it’s all strong reasons to rank Messi’s 2025 campaign as qualitatively the greatest MLS season in history.
