Lionel Messi has written another line into the Major League Soccer record books, winning the 2026 MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi with 26 goals and becoming the first player in league history to claim the award in back-to-back seasons. The Inter Miami forward also led the league in goal contributions, adding 17 assists for a total of 43 across the campaign.
The award caps another remarkable season for the Argentine, who won the same honour in 2025 with 29 goals and 19 assists. He is only the sixth player to win the Golden Boot twice, and the first to do it in consecutive years. Messi was also named the league’s Most Valuable Player in both 2024 and 2025, underlining how quickly he has come to dominate the competition since arriving in Miami.
FC Dallas striker Petar Musa finished second in the 2026 scoring race with 22 goals, four behind Messi, while Nashville SC’s Sam Surridge was third with 21. Musa and Surridge both enjoyed fine seasons of their own, but neither could match Messi’s consistency over the full campaign. The gap underlined how consistently Messi found the net across the season, even as defences set out to stop him, and how much of Miami’s attack continues to run through their captain.
Miami’s playoff push
Inter Miami finished the regular season as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference and now turn their attention to the playoffs, where they face No. 7 seed Columbus Crew in a Round One best-of-three series. Messi’s form will be central to their hopes of a deep run, with the club chasing the first MLS Cup in its history.
For Messi, the back-to-back Golden Boots add another first to a career already full of them. The record is a reminder that, even in the later years of his career, he remains the player every defence in the league has to plan around — and the one most likely to decide a game on his own, whether from open play or a free kick.
