Lionel Messi owned MLS this year. Is he still one of the world’s best or is the league catching up?

It’s been quite the month for Lionel Messi. Literally.

The Inter Miami star picked up his fifth MLS Player of the Month honor this month after being a contributor toward 10 Miami goals, scoring five on his own, in just three games.

One of which included a hat trick against Nashville SC, one of the better clubs in Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference. That hat trick landed him with 29 goals on the season, good enough for MLS’ Golden Boot award. He became just the third player since the turn of the century to score at least 29 goals in a regular season, with average of 1.03 goals per game.

On Thursday, he inked a three-year extension in Miami, which will find him playing until 2028.

Which begs the question: Is Messi still the world’s greatest player or is Major League Soccer still playing catch up to his level of talent.

It’s a fair question. In Europe where top names are world renowned and their talents speak for themselves, here in the States, many of the players, even the ones who lead MLS stat sheets are relative unknowns, players who are beloved by club, but still unrecognizable anywhere else.

This isn’t to say that Major League Soccer isn’t an exciting league. It absolutely is, with the 2025 season arguably being one of the best ones yet. But when a 38-year-old Messi, who’s debut in world soccer happened when many of his teammates and opponents weren’t even born yet (Messi debuted for Barcelona against FC Porto on Nov. 16, 2003), it makes you wonder just how far has the league come when one of its oldest players can still torch it.

Let’s start with a few caveats. Sure Messi has been Miami’s wunderkind at his age, but he also is surrounded by teammates that aren’t slouches. David Beckham, who owns Miami alongside the rest of the club’s ownership group brought a throwback Barcelona contingent to support their brightest star. Midfielders Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets, and forward Luis Suarez, are all names that have played in the sport’s biggest moments and have shined.

Not saying all Messi has to do is show up. On the contrary. MLS teams haven’t made it easy on him or the club, which is why they missed out on the League’s Supporters’ Shield award, given to the club with the best regular season record and enter as a No. 3 seed in the upcoming Round One, Best-of-3 series against … Nashville on Friday (8 p.m., Apple TV, FS1).

But here’s some more stats that should surprise you.

He finished the regular season with 48 goal contributions, that’s either scoring or being the assist guy in just 28 matches this season. It’s the second-highest total of any player in MLS history, and he accomplished it in just three seasons in the league. He’s also just the second player in the xx-history of the league to lead it in both goals and assists (19).

He’s just the third player all-time to win three Player of the Month honors in the same season and the only one ever to win five.

So ask yourself the question: Is Messi still at the top of his game pushing 40 years old? Or is MLS still playing catch up to players of his caliber?