Should Lionel Messi win the MLS MVP award? | The Cooligans
Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros of "The Cooligans" discuss if the Inter Miami superstar - after netting a hat trick in the team's regular season finale - deserves to win the league's top individual honor this season. Hear the full conversation on the “The Cooligans” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
The hat trick from Lionel Messi to finish this season.
His first hat trick for Inter Miami, we were having sort of the debates about his Messi MVP and he didn't play enough games.
I was a little bit on the fence.
If you were on the fence, this game made you say he deserves to be without a doubt.
Yeah, he's, how could you argue otherwise?
Can I suggest though that if you are the most valuable player, then your team wouldn't be as good without you.
You could say like if Messi got the numbers he got, but played in six more games that that would be enough to sort of change your mind that he deserved, like deserves to vote definitively over everybody else.
No, it's, it's because the team still played really well without him.
They did but not that much better without him.
It was like the, the points per game were like points in first place.
That's correct.
But it was 0.01 points per game without Messi, it wasn't a drastic difference without him.
So I, but I understand that point.
I'm right.
So is Messi the most valuable player?
No, because the team was still a first place team without him.
We need to quantify what this trophy with this, with this award.
And it is subjective.
Messi played fewer games than a lot of the other candidates for MVP.
And his production was either even or better than the other people he is competing against.
He just simply did not play as many games if you are inner Miami and I see that you are a very good team without him and you just happen to be an exceptional team with him.
That's not enough of a bump up for me.
And that is, that is the MVP.
I respect your criteria but messi I think is just way too impactful and to me he's done far more with less minutes.
That is, that's all true.
It's unbelievable.
That doesn't make you the MVP.