Messi Wins MLS Goal of Matchday With Nashville Curler

Lionel Messi keeps winning the AT&T MLS Goal of the Matchday award: after the Matchday 26 curler against Nashville SC, he claimed the Matchday 28 honor too — with 80.2% of the vote for an impossible-angle free kick at Columbus, his league-leading 21st goal of the season.

He has won it again since — Matchday 28

Since the Nashville curler won Matchday 26, Messi has gone and won the award again. For Matchday 28 he earned 80.2% of the fan vote — an even bigger landslide — for a perfect free kick from a nearly impossible angle in Inter Miami's 2-1 defeat at the Columbus Crew. The strike was his league-leading 21st goal of the season.

Milan Iloski finished a distant second on 9.1% for a long-distance screamer in Philadelphia Union's 4-2 win over Orlando City, with Thomas Müller third on 6.5% and Jordan Morris fourth on 4.2%. MLS's own verdict: Messi is 'making the unbelievable commonplace.'

It is his second award in three weeks and the sixth of his campaign — Matchdays 2, 8, 11, 23, 26 and 28. Nobody else in the league is collecting them at anything like this rate.

Another award for the GOAT

Another week, another AT&T Goal of the Matchday award for Lionel Messi. Inter Miami CF's legendary Argentine No. 10 claimed the honors for Matchday 26, securing a commanding 60.5% of the fan vote thanks to a trademark left-footed curler during the Herons' 2-2 draw against Nashville SC.

The goal was pure Messi: a quick shift of the body, the ball wrapped around the defender with that unmistakable left foot, and the finish nestled beyond the goalkeeper's reach. It was the kind of strike that has become routine for him — and still stops stadiums. Fans recognized it instantly, delivering one of the most one-sided votes of the season.

The award continues a theme of the MLS campaign. Messi has been collecting the weekly honor with regularity, and each win has felt less like a contest and more like a coronation.

The beaten nominees

Finishing a distant second was Carlo Holse, St. Louis CITY SC's summer designated-player signing, who earned 27.3% of the vote. His first-time strike into the upper left corner helped extend his club's unbeaten streak to 15 games in a 4-2 win over Minnesota United — a fine goal in any other week.

Third place went to Antoine Griezmann with 9.6%. The French legend has been on a heater since joining Orlando City, with seven goals in his last five games, and his lunging left-footed finish during the Lions' 3-0 victory over Toronto FC was a worthy nominee.

Fourth was New York City FC's Argentine star Nicolás Fernández Mercau on 2.6%, whose rocket from outside the box helped snap a seven-match winless streak with a 2-0 victory at Real Salt Lake.

One of several this season

The Matchday 26 award is far from Messi's first this year. MLS records show he also took the honor on Matchday 2 with 87.5% of the vote for a left-footed blast in a 4-2 Florida Derby win at Orlando City, on Matchday 8 with 83.9% for a sublime far-post finish in a 3-2 win over the Colorado Rapids, on Matchday 11 with 42.6% for a quick-touch left-footed finish in the Florida Derby against Orlando, on Matchday 23 with a staggering 86.5% for a last-minute free kick capping a four-goal show in a 7-1 rout of CF Montréal — and now on Matchday 28 with 80.2% for the impossible-angle free kick at Columbus.

The pattern is familiar: Messi produces a moment of magic, the vote follows, and the award cabinet fills up. At 39, his ability to decide games with a single touch remains the league's defining storyline.

Even in a season where Inter Miami have endured the occasional stumble — the Nashville draw being a case in point — Messi's individual output has kept the Herons near the top of the Eastern Conference conversation and given their supporters a highlight reel for the ages.

Form that Argentina will miss

What makes the award bittersweet for Argentina fans is that it arrives just as Messi's international career is ending. The maestro announced his retirement from the national team in August, after Argentina's World Cup final defeat to Spain, and his 207 caps with 125 goals will stand as national records.

His club form, though, shows no sign of the decline the retirement announcement might have suggested. Week after week in MLS, Messi is still the player who bends matches to his will — the same player who dragged Argentina through tournaments for nearly two decades.

The contrast was visible this week: while Argentina thrashed Bolivia 4-0 in Córdoba in their first match since his retirement, Messi was busy reminding the club game what it will continue to enjoy — and what international football is about to lose.

The league can't stop voting for him

There is a simple reason Messi keeps winning the weekly award: nobody else in the league produces moments like his with anything close to the same frequency. The Matchday 26 vote was the latest demonstration, and the margin — 60.5% against three strong nominees — said everything about how supporters view the race.

What stands out across his wins this season is the variety. Matchday 2 brought a left-footed blast through a crowd of defenders in the Florida Derby at Orlando. Matchday 8 delivered a sublime far-post finish to win a thriller at Colorado. Matchday 11 offered a quick-touch finish in another derby. Matchday 23 ended with a last-minute free kick capping a four-goal demolition of Montréal. Matchday 26 added the curler against Nashville. Matchday 28 brought the impossible-angle free kick at Columbus. Different matches, different finishes, same winner.

For Inter Miami, the award is welcome recognition in a campaign where the Herons have had to share the spotlight. The 2-2 draw with Nashville was a reminder that even Messi's brilliance cannot win every game on its own — but it can keep producing the moments that define a season.

And for the neutral, each of these awards lands a little differently now. Every curler, every free kick, every week he turns a match on its head is one fewer of them left to enjoy before the Monumental farewell. The club game keeps him; the international game says goodbye on 6 October.

From MLS to the Monumental farewell

Attention now turns to tomorrow, 6 October, when Messi will wear the Argentina shirt one final time in the friendly against Benin at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires. FIFA has confirmed the match as his official farewell appearance, and tickets sold out in about 90 minutes when they went on sale through the Deportick platform.

The Argentine Football Association has invited members of the 2022 World Cup-winning squad and their families to attend, and Rodrigo De Paul and Giovani Lo Celso are expected to join Messi in the squad for the occasion. It will be the 208th and final cap of arguably the greatest international career ever played. Messi touched down in Argentina on Friday — in Rosario, with his family — and skipped Saturday's friendly against Burkina Faso so he would be fresh for the farewell.

Until then, the weekly awards keep coming. Messi's curler against Nashville was not just the Goal of the Matchday — it was another reminder that, whatever happens at the Monumental, the show goes on in Miami.

Questions people ask

All of our farewell coverage is on Argentina vs Benin.