The league named its five finalists for the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award on Thursday, and the list holds two stories that have no business sharing a ballot. At one end stands Lionel Messi, the winner in 2024 and again in 2025, one vote from a third straight award nobody has ever won. At the other stands a 17-year-old from Philadelphia who, until this season, had never started a run of games in this league.
The five are Messi of Inter Miami, Evander of FC Cincinnati, Guilherme of Houston, Hany Mukhtar of Nashville and Cavan Sullivan of Philadelphia. The votes are already cast — club technical staffs, first-team players and select media each carried a third of the result — and the winner will be announced during the playoffs, which open November 19. Nobody on this page is calling the result early. The finalist list is the news, and it is plenty.
The case at the top
Messi's regular season needs no decoration. He scored 26 goals in 31 appearances, more than anyone in the league, and added 17 assists, second-most in MLS. That is 43 goal contributions, a dozen clear of the next finalist. He took the Golden Boot for the second straight year — the first player in league history to win it back to back — and he collected seven Goal of the Matchday awards and thirteen Team of the Matchday selections along the way.
Miami's own announcement framed what is actually at stake. Messi has the chance to become the first player in MLS history to claim the MVP award in three consecutive seasons. He is 39, he is the defending champion, and his repeat run opens at home against Columbus on Saturday, November 21 — the one team that went unbeaten against Miami this season. Follow that series in the Game Center.
The teenager on the ballot
Sullivan is 17 years old. The league's release states it plainly: he is the youngest player in MLS history to be named an MVP finalist, and the first teenager ever to make the list. His season earned the place rather than borrowing it — nine goals and 14 assists in 29 games, 23 goal contributions, the most a teenager has ever recorded in a single MLS season.
He closed the regular season the way finalists are supposed to. On Decision Day at Subaru Park, Sullivan scored twice in Philadelphia's 4-1 win over Toronto — the first a close-range finish in the 28th minute, the second a one-timed strike in the 58th from his older brother Quinn, the first time Quinn had ever assisted him in MLS. The brothers became the third pair in league history to score for the same club in the same match, and Sullivan was voted Player of the Matchday for the final round. Earlier this season he also became the youngest goalscorer in U.S. men's national team history, in a friendly win over Mexico. He is a finalist for Young Player of the Year, too — one of only two players in the league named a finalist for two of these awards.
His first playoff game is a hard one. Philadelphia, the East's sixth seed, opens its best-of-three at third-seeded New England on Saturday, November 21. Follow it in the Game Center.
The three cases in between
Evander owns the strongest numbers of anyone not named Messi: 14 goals and 17 assists for Cincinnati, 31 goal contributions, built across a season his club spent sliding down the table. Cincinnati fell to ninth on Decision Day, which means Evander's playoff life starts in the Wild Card round, at Orlando on Thursday, November 19 — win or his season ends before Round One begins.
Guilherme's case is about weight. Signed from Santos, the Brazilian produced 16 goals and 10 assists in his first MLS season — and Houston's own accounting says that was 60.5 percent of every goal the Dynamo scored, a club single-season record that passed the old mark of 21 contributions. He is the first player in Dynamo history named a finalist for two major performance awards, and only the third Dynamo ever to reach an MVP final. Houston opens at San Jose on Monday, November 24.
Hany Mukhtar is the best-player-on-the-best-team case, and it is a serious one. The Nashville captain, who won this award in 2022, played all 34 matches for the Supporters' Shield winners and finished with 17 goals and eight assists — 25 goal contributions, making him the first player in league history to reach that mark in five different seasons. He sits one goal short of 100 for his MLS career. Nashville opens at home on Sunday, November 22, against the Wild Card winner.
Laid side by side, the five cases read cleanly. Messi 43 contributions. Evander 31. Guilherme 26, carrying three-fifths of his team's attack. Mukhtar 25, for the team that broke the points record. Sullivan 23, at an age when most players are finishing school. The ballot is a genuine argument — and then there is Nashville, which spent Thursday collecting finalists the way it spent the season collecting records.
Nashville took the rest of the ballot, too
No club placed more finalists than Nashville's six, across four awards — the most by one club in a season since Miami's six in 2024. The Defender of the Year list is not a list so much as a team photo: Andy Najar, Jeisson Palacios and Maxwell Woledzi, all three of them Nashville's, after a season in which the club conceded 25 goals, the fewest in league history, and tied the record with 17 clean sheets. Nashville is only the second club ever to supply all three finalists for a single award.
Behind them, first-year starter Brian Schwake is a Goalkeeper of the Year finalist after tying Tony Meola's 26-year-old record with 16 shutouts, leading the league's regular keepers in wins, goals-against average and save percentage. B. J. Callaghan is a Coach of the Year finalist after a season that set league records for wins, points, home wins and the margin by which the Shield was won. The other coach finalists are St. Louis's Yoann Damet and Vancouver's Jesper Sørensen, the first coach named a finalist in each of his first two MLS seasons since Gerardo Martino.
The rest of the finalists
The remaining lists are short and strong. Goalkeeper of the Year: St. Louis's Roman Bürki, Schwake and New England's Matt Turner. Newcomer of the Year: Orlando's Antoine Griezmann, who arrived in July and still put up 14 goals and eight assists; Guilherme; and Sporting Kansas City's André Luiz. Young Player of the Year: Sullivan and the Red Bull New York pair Julian Hall and Adri Mehmeti. Comeback Player of the Year: Vancouver's Ryan Gauld, Cincinnati's Nick Hagglund and San Jose's Eduard Löwen.
Fifteen clubs placed at least one finalist. The referee awards follow on Friday, the Best XI comes later, and the fan-voted Goal and Save of the Year polls close Monday. Everything else resolves on the field, starting with the Wild Cards on November 19: Evander in Orlando on Thursday, Sullivan in New England and Messi against Columbus on Saturday, Mukhtar at home on Sunday, Guilherme in San Jose on Monday. By the time the league names its MVP, every man on this ballot will already have played at least one playoff game with his season on the line. That is the right order for it.
Sources · 7 sources
- Major League Soccer — 2026 Year-End Awards finalists announcement (November 12, 2026); Cavan Sullivan Player of the Matchday, Matchday 35 (November 9, 2026); Audi 2026 MLS Cup Playoffs Round One schedule
- Inter Miami CF — Leo Messi named a finalist for the 2026 Landon Donovan MLS MVP Award (November 12, 2026)
- Philadelphia Union — Cavan Sullivan named finalist for Landon Donovan MLS MVP and MLS Young Player of the Year (November 12, 2026); Sullivan Squared, Decision Day recap (November 2026)
- Nashville SC — Nashville leads MLS with six 2026 Year-End Awards finalists (November 12, 2026); 2026 club award winners (November 5, 2026)
- Houston Dynamo FC — Guilherme named finalist for Landon Donovan MLS MVP and MLS Newcomer of the Year (November 12, 2026)
- Field Level Media via Reuters — Lionel Messi a finalist for third straight MLS MVP award (November 12, 2026)
- ESPN — event records for Round One Game 1s, November 21, 2026 (events 401933733 and 401933739)
