It's Messi. Repeat, Messi. The Inter Miami star is MLS' first back-to-back MVP winner

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Best player. Best team. Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi is the unquestioned force in Major League Soccer right now, on a run like nobody else the league has ever seen.

The 38-year-old Argentine star — and captain of the MLS Cup champions — has become the first back-to-back MVP in MLS history, getting announced Tuesday as this year’s winner of the league’s top individual honor.

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Inter Miami's Lionel Messi hoists the trophy alongside teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi hoists the trophy alongside teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami's Lionel Messi, centre, carries the trophy to celebrate with his teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps during the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, centre, carries the trophy to celebrate with his teammates after defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps during the MLS Cup final soccer match, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (Darryl Dyck/The Canadian Press via AP)

Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi arrives for an MLS Eastern Conference final soccer match against New York FC, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

David Beckham poses with the MLS Cup trophy with Inter Miami forward Lionel Messi Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

It’s another first for Messi in what seems like a never-ending list of his career accomplishments and was widely expected, almost assumed after he had a league-best 29 goals along with 19 assists during the regular season.

He also becomes just the second two-time MVP the league has ever seen, joining Preki, the winner of the award in 1997 and 2003. The other winners are all one-time MVP recipients.

“He was fantastic the whole season, with the numbers and also with the commitment,” Inter Miami coach and longtime Messi teammate Javier Mascherano said.

Messi played in barely half of Inter Miami’s regular-season games in 2024, and that sparked some doubt as to whether he deserved to win the MVP award.

He won a close vote last year. This year, there was no debate.

Messi got 70.4% of the total vote — the biggest winning total since Toronto’s Sebastian Giovinco in 2015. San Diego’s Anders Dreyer was second with 11.2%, followed by LAFC’s Denis Bouanga (7.3%), Cincinnati’s Evander (4.8%) and Nashville’s Sam Surridge (2.4%).

“I think he’s the unicorn of unicorns,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said of Messi while attending an Inter Miami match earlier in this season’s playoffs. “You know, there’s something about the way he’s wired. He’s thinking about the game like nobody else ever has. His intensity and desire to win is what makes him the greatest of all time. There are a lot of really competitive players, but he has this special sauce, this dynamic that has him so focused on doing what he needs to do to win games.”

This award joins dozens of other individual honors in Messi’s career, including eight Ballon d’Or titles, eight Pichichi trophies as La Liga’s top scorer, six La Liga best player nods, three Best FIFA Men’s Player awards, three UEFA Men’s Player of the Year wins, two FIFA World Cup Golden Balls and no fewer than 15 selections as Argentina’s best player in a given year. He’s also been part of winning 47 trophies for club and country — including the 2022 World Cup — making him the most decorated player the men’s game has ever seen.

“The reality,” Mascherano said as the regular season was ending, “is that Leo clears all doubts.”

Messi becomes the sixth player in MLS history to win MVP and a championship in the same season. Of the previous five, only Atlanta United’s Josef Martinez in 2018 won MVP, a title and the Golden Boot as the league’s scoring champion all in the same year, another hat trick of sorts that Messi achieved in 2025.

Indeed, there has been no one like him — in MLS for certain, and quite possibly anywhere.

Forget winning back-to-back MVPs. There have been only four players in MLS history — Carlos Valderrama in 1996 and 1997, Marco Etcheverry in 1998 and 1999, David Villa in 2016 and 2017, and Martinez in 2018 and 2019 — to win the award one year and then even be a finalist for MVP in the following season.

And Messi isn’t planning on leaving Miami anytime soon. He’s signed a three-year extension, meaning he’ll be there when Inter Miami — a franchise that has seen its value explode since his arrival 2½ years ago — opens its new stadium near Miami International Airport next season.

“When Lionel Messi made MLS his league of choice, it marked a turning point — not just for Inter Miami, but for our entire sport in North America,” Garber said when the contract was announced. “Since then, we’ve witnessed something truly historic: the greatest player of all time bringing global attention to our league. We’re thrilled that Leo has chosen to stay and continue his career with Inter Miami.”

The phenomenon of having a back-to-back MVP has occurred in each of the other major U.S. pro sports leagues in the past plenty of times, with the most recent instance of each happening fairly recently.

In Major League Baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani and the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge have won the National League and American League MVP awards, respectively, in each of the last two seasons; Ohtani won the AL MVP award with the Los Angeles Angels in 2023 as well.

A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces has won the WNBA’s MVP award in each of the last two years. Denver’s Nikola Jokic was the most recent NBA player to win MVP back-to-back, doing so in 2021 and 2022. Aaron Rodgers — then of Green Bay — won two straight NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021, and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin won the NHL’s Hart Trophy in 2008 and 2009 for the most recent occurrence of someone claiming that award in consecutive years.

But never in MLS — until now.

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A federal judge said Tuesday that the Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidante of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled after the Justice Department in November asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits, along with investigative materials that could amount to hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

He’s the second judge to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose previously secret Epstein-related records.

Last week, a judge in Florida granted the department’s request to release transcripts from an abandoned federal grand jury investigation into Epstein in the 2000s.

A request to release records from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case is still pending.

The Justice Department said Congress intended the unsealing when it passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last month.

Here’s the latest:

Opponents of Missouri’s new congressional map submitted thousands of petition signatures Tuesday calling for a statewide referendum on a redistricting plan backed by President Trump as part of his quest to hold on to a slim Republican majority in next year’s elections.

Organizers of the petition drive said they turned in more than 300,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office — well more than the roughly 110,000 needed to suspend the new U.S. House districts from taking effect until a public vote can be held next year.

The signatures must still be formally verified by local election authorities and Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, who’s argued the referendum is unconstitutional. But if the signatures hold up, the referendum could create a significant obstacle for Republicans who hope the new districts could help them win a currently Democratic-held seat in the Kansas City area in the November election.

▶ Read more about redistricting efforts ahead of the 2026 elections

It’s a resistance to U.S. pressure for painful concessions to Russia as he moved ahead Tuesday to rally more European support for his country.

“Undoubtedly, Russia insists for us to give up territories. We, clearly, don’t want to give up anything. That’s what we are fighting for,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a WhatsApp chat late Monday.

“Do we consider ceding any territories? According to the law we don’t have such right,” he said. “According to Ukraine’s law, our constitution, international law, and to be frank, we don’t have a moral right either.”

In an interview with Politico released Tuesday, President Trump again pressed Zelenskyy to accept the U.S. proposal that Ukraine cede territory to Russia, arguing that Moscow retains the “upper hand” in its nearly 4-year-old invasion, and that Zelenskyy’s government must “play ball.”

▶ Read more about the Russia-Ukraine war

The Labor Department reported Tuesday that employers posted 7.67 million vacancies in October, close to September’s 7.66 million.

The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS), which was delayed by the extended government shutdown, also showed the layoffs rose and number of people quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in the labor market — fell in October.

Job openings have come down steadily since peaking at a record 12.1 million in March 2022, when the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. The job market has cooled partly because of the lingering effect of the high interest rates the Federal engineered in 2022 and 2023 to combat an outburst of inflation.

Overall, it’s a puzzling time for the American economy, buffeted by President Trump’s decision to reverse decades of U.S. policy in favor of free trade and instead impose double-digit tariffs on imports from most of the world’s countries.

▶ Read more about U.S. job openings

Except to note that her plans to file a habeas petition could be spoiled because the public release of materials “would create undue prejudice so severe that it would foreclose the possibility of a fair retrial” if the habeas request succeeded.

Lawyers for the Epstein estate took no position.

Former Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello said Tuesday he would challenge Republican U.S. Rep. John McGuire in the midterm elections next year.

“Families can’t afford groceries because Republicans in Congress like John McGuire won’t stand up to Trump’s tariffs,” Perriello said in a video launching his campaign.

Perriello, elected for one term in 2008, was the last Democrat to win Virginia’s 5th Congressional district, which McGuire now represents. It’s a district where President Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by 12 points, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project. McGuire was first elected to the district in 2024 after defeating former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Good in a bitter primary.

Virginia Democrats who control the statehouse have indicated McGuire’s seat may be vulnerable if they’re successful in their efforts to redraw the state’s Congressional maps ahead of elections next November. The General Assembly in October endorsed a proposed a constitutional amendment allowing mid-decade redistricting, though another legislative vote is needed to refer the amendment to a statewide ballot.

A federal judge said Tuesday the Justice Department can publicly release investigative materials from a sex trafficking case against Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime confidant of Jeffrey Epstein.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer ruled after the Justice Department in November asked two judges in New York to unseal grand jury transcripts and exhibits from Maxwell and Epstein’s cases, along with investigative materials that could amount to hundreds or thousands of previously unreleased documents.

The ruling, in the wake of the passage last month of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, means the records could be made public within 10 days. The law requires the Justice Department provide Epstein-related records to the public in a searchable format by Dec. 19.

▶ Read more about the Jeffrey Epstein case

President Trump dismissed Pope Leo XIV’s criticisms of his aggressive immigration agenda, saying he’s not seen the pontiff’s remarks.

Leo recently offered strong support for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops criticizing the “vilification” of migrants and raids that have sown fear in immigrant communities.

Leo said the U.S. should use its justice system to handle immigration violations, “treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have.”

In a Politico interview, Trump responded: “You know, they didn’t like the wall. The wall turned out to be great.”

Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, criticized Trump’s first-term immigration policies, including expanding the U.S-Mexico border wall.

Trump told Politico he’d still be interested in meeting Leo, the first U.S.-born pontiff, and the president noted without prompting that he especially likes one of Leo’s brothers who’s a Trump supporter. “Do you know his brother is serious MAGA?” Trump said.

Questioned about how Republicans’ delay on addressing Affordable Care Act subsidies might affect U.S. households’ budget, Trump twice told a Politico reporter: “Don’t be dramatic.”

It was the president’s push back to a question about how ACA premium holders might be struggling around the holidays facing steep health insurance premium spikes if the GOP-run Congress doesn’t address expiring subsidies.

Trump loosely explained Republicans’ pitch to steer money directly to policy holders rather than subsidize premiums with tax credits that can be paid directly to insurance companies or claimed on policy holders’ tax returns.

“I’m giving them money. I want to give the money to the people to buy their own health care,” Trump said. “That’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”

Ahead of a planned speech on the economy, Trump is giving the U.S. market a sterling grade despite continued inflation, wealth gaps, layoffs and consumer angst.

“A-plus,” he told Politico when asked how he’d rate the economy, before adding, “A-plus-plus-plus-plus-plus.”

Told of concerns even from one of his supporters, Trump shifted blame to his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

“I inherited a mess. I inherited a total mess,” he said, seemingly brushing off the idea of “affordability” that has become a buzz word ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

“Everything is coming down,” he insisted.

The latest federal analysis, using data from September, found that overall prices rose 2.8% over the previous year, up slightly from 2.7% in August. Core prices also rose 2.8% from a year earlier, a small decline from the previous month’s figure of 2.9%.

The president says he hopes the two eldest members of the Supreme Court, who were nominated by Republican presidents, don’t leave the bench.

He was asked during a Politico interview whether he would want Justices Clarence Thomas, 77, and Sam Alito, 75, to retire so Trump could tap their younger successors.

Trump dismissed the idea.

“I hope they stay ’cause I think they’re fantastic, OK?” Trump said in the interview published Tuesday morning. “Both of those men are fantastic.”

Trump will road-test his claims that he’s tackling Americans’ affordability woes at a Tuesday rally in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania — shifting an argument made in Oval Office appearances and social media posts to a campaign-style event.

The trip comes as polling consistently shows that public trust in Trump’s economic leadership has faltered. Following dismal results for Republicans in last month’s off-cycle elections, the White House has sought to convince voters that the economy will emerge stronger next year and that any anxieties over inflation have nothing to do with Trump.

The president’s reception in the county hosting his Tuesday rally could give a signal of just how much voters trust his claims. Monroe County flipped to Trump in the 2024 election after having backed Biden in 2020, helping the Republican to win the swing state of Pennsylvania and return to the White House after a four-year hiatus.

▶ Read more about Trump’s upcoming rally

The Federal Reserve faces an unusually contentious meeting this week that will test Chair Jerome Powell’s ability to corral the necessary support from fellow policymakers for a third straight interest rate cut.

The Fed’s 19-member rate-setting committee is sharply divided over whether to lower borrowing costs again. The divisions have been exacerbated by the convoluted nature of the economy: Inflation remains elevated, which would typically lead the Fed to keep its key rate unchanged, while hiring is weak and the unemployment rate has risen, which often leads to rate cuts.

Some economists expect three Fed officials could vote against the quarter-point cut that Powell is likely to support at the Dec. 9-10 meeting, which would be the most dissenting votes in six years. Just 12 of the 19 members vote on rate decisions. Several of the non-voting officials have also said they oppose another rate cut.

▶ Read more about the potential rate cut

The Supreme Court is considering a Republican-led drive, backed by Trump’s administration, to overturn a quarter-century-old decision and erase limits on how much political parties can spend in coordination with candidates for Congress and president.

A day after the justices indicated they would overturn a 90-year-old decision limiting the president’s power to fire independent agency heads, the court is revisiting a 2001 decision that upheld a provision of federal election law that is more than 50 years old.

Democrats are calling on the court to uphold the law.

The limits stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.

The Federal Election Commission and the GOP argue that the court should cast a skeptical eye on the limits, in line with recent high court decisions. Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative majority has upended a variety of congressionally enacted limits on raising and spending money to influence elections.

▶ Read more about the decision

Trump said Monday that he would allow Nvidia to sell an advanced type of computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China.

There have been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips to be sold to China as it could help the country better compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities, but there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.

Nvidia said in a statement that it applauded Trump’s decision, saying the choice would support domestic manufacturing and that by allowing the Commerce Department to vet commercial customers it would “strike a thoughtful balance” on economic and national security priorities.

But a group of Democratic senators objected to the chip sales.

▶ Read more about the sales

It’s Messi. Repeat, Messi. The Inter Miami star is MLS’ first back-to-back MVP winner

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