MLS 2025: Who Will Win the Landon Donovan MVP Award this Season?
MLS 2025: Who Will Win the Landon Donovan MVP Award this Season?
The Landon Donovan MVP Award is an annual prize that is handed out following the conclusion of the regular MLS season to the player who is widely considered to have made the most notable contribution to their team throughout the campaign. The award was first handed out back in 1996, however, it was renamed in 2015 in honour of Landon Donovan, who made a significant impact on the competition and at the international level for the USMNT.
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MLS 2025 Landon Donovan MVP Award Winner
BEOMod 508Status ClosedOpen Time Remaining 20:09:57Category SportLast Updated 27 May 2025 20:59 UTC
# Bet Options Chance to Win Trend Implied Projected Winner Lionel Messi 52.36% Implied Projected Winner Brian White 11.76% Implied Projected Winner Tai Baribo 9.09%
The voting process tends to begin in early October with members of the technical staff from each of the MLS franchises and media representatives given an opportunity to cast a single vote. Voters may also pick a player for: MLS Comeback Player of the Year, MLS Defender of the Year, MLS Newcomer of the Year and MLS Coach of the Year. The individual player with the highest total will be officially crowned MVP at the end of October.
1XBet’s Odds of 3.75 are predicting a 54.4% chance that Lionel Messi will win the Landon Donovan MVP 2025 ::: Discover the current Odds now HERE
Previous Winners of the Landon Donovan MVP
1996 was the first season under Major League Soccer branding and the league featured just ten teams including DC United and Tampa Bay Mutiny. Carlos Valderama was the inaugural recipient of the MVP award beating Roy Lassiter. Preki, who was a runner-up in 1996 was victorious the following year following a fantastic season for the Kansas City Wizards.
Other winners of the award including Tony Meola, Taylor Twellman and Luciano Emilio. DC United’s Dwayne De Rosario became the first Canadian to be awarded MVP in 2011 with striker Robbie Keane becoming the first European player to receive the honour in 2014 following a productive spell for LA Galaxy. Other notable European players to have followed in Keane’s footsteps including mercurial Italian Giovinco, legendary Spanish striker David Villa and Germany’s Hanny Mukhtar, who was successful in 2022.
The award has been won by players born in Argentina over the last couple of seasons with FC Cincinatti’s Luciano Acosta and Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi adding their name to this illustrious list.
DC United have had four players receive the MVP with Sporting KC (Under the previous guise of Kansas City Wizard) and LA Galaxy closely following with three. Since 1996, eight of the MVP winners were born in the USA, although the last of these was in 2013 when Chicago Fire’s Mike Magee was successful.
Who is in Contention in 2025?
Lionel Messi is aiming to become the first player to win back-to-back MVP awards and is currently the favourite to achieve this feat. The Argentinian international has a global appeal and has helped to bring a whole new audience to the league in recent seasons. Although his minutes tend to get managed carefully, he has enjoy a successful 2025 so far and as of June 1st, he has the most goals + assists per 90 minutes (1.28). He has found the net eight times so far, trailing Nashville’s Sam Surridge, Philadephia’s Tai Baribo, Hugo Cuypers of Chicago Fire. With 12 goals + assists, he has is level with the aforementioned Surridge and San Diego’s Andreas Dreyer, however, his goals have helped to fire Inter Miami towards the summit of the Eastern Conference.
Tai Baribo has enjoyed a fantastic season for the Union, scoring 10 goals from an xG of 8.3. He’s already surpassed last season’s total of nine goals in 16 starts and has already attempted 27 efforts on goal. Philly are another side who are competing at the top end of the Eastern Conference, although with very few of their players chipping in with goals, Baribo has been doing a lot of the heavy lifting so far.
Vancouver Whitecaps have enjoyed an un expectedly positive start to the season and Brian White has been responsible for most of their best work. After a rough start with the NY Red Bulls, White has settled in perfectly in British Columbia and although he showed signs of progress last season, he has finally come to fore in 2025. The hard work of Sebastion Berhalter has enabled White to thrive and he has been brutally efficient in both MLS and the CONCACAF Champions League.
Christian Benteke is struggling in an ineffective DC United squad, whereas Hugo Cuypers has excelled, however, Chicago Fire are struggling to put a sequence of results together.
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