While each Major League Soccer club names a team MVP every season, the overall best player in MLS is awarded the Landon Donovan MVP award. That name change happened for the 2015 season, honoring the USMNT alum who once held the league’s all-time scoring title as well as lifting six MLS Cups with two MLS clubs. Donovan won the award in 2009. USMNT alum Preki is the only player to win the MLS MVP twice, in 1997 and 2003. More recently, expansion teams have had a player win the league’s MVP award relatively quickly, while MLS originals Colorado has never had an MLS MVP winner.
| Year | Player | Club |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Carlos Valderamma | Tampa Bay |
| 1997 | Preki | Kansas City |
| 1998 | Marco Etcheverry | DC United |
| 1999 | Jason Kreis | Dallas |
| 2000 | Tony Meola | Kansas City |
| 2001 | Alex Pineda Chacon | Miami |
| 2002 | Carlos Ruiz | LA Galaxy |
| 2003 | Preki | Kansas City |
| 2004 | Amado Guevara | MetroStars |
| 2005 | Taylor Twellman | New England |
| 2006 | Christian Gomez | DC United |
| 2007 | Luciano Emilio | DC United |
| 2008 | Guillermo Barros Schelotto | Columbus |
| 2009 | Landon Donovan | LA Galaxy |
| 2010 | David Ferreira | Dallas |
| 2011 | Dwayne De Rosario | DC United |
| 2012 | Chris Wondolowski | San Jose |
| 2013 | Mike Magee | Chicago |
| 2014 | Robbie Keane | LA Galaxy |
| 2015 | Sebastian Giovinco | Toronto |
| 2016 | David Villa | NYCFC |
| 2017 | Diego Valeri | Portland |
| 2018 | Josef Martinez | Atlanta |
| 2019 | Carlos Vela | LAFC |
| 2020 | Alejandro Pozuelo | Toronto |
| 2021 | Carles Gil | New England |
| 2022 | Hany Mukhtar | Nashville |
| 2023 | Luciano Acosta | Cincinnati |
| 2024 | Lionel Messi | Inter Miami |
Photo by Inter Miami
