Lionel Messi by numbers: Inside his MVP-caliber 2025 season

29 - number of goals scored

Messi won the 2025 MLS Golden Boot by knocking in a whopping 29 goals for Miami over the course of its 34-game season. It's the third highest end-of-year goalscoring tally in MLS history, clocking in behind Carlos Vela's 34-goal campaign in 2024 and Josef Martinez's 31-goal campaign in 2018.

Messi scored his 29 goals in just 28 games, giving him an end-of-year goal per game ratio of 1.08. That's enough to put him second in the all-time history books, but not quite enough for him to catch Vela's nigh-unbeatable ratio of 1.1 during his charmed 2019 season.

59 percent - percentage of Miami's league goals that Lionel Messi was directly involved in

Miami led the league in goals scored this season, tapping in an impressive 81 for an average rate of 2.4 goals per game. That's 13 more goals than its next-closest competitor. (Chicago, surprisingly, which scored 68 but conceded nearly the same amount.)

While Miami had its share of goalscorers — 16 of its players found the back of the net at least once in 2025 — it would've been adrift without Messi's contributions. His 29 goals and 19 assists combined to make up well more than half of Miami's goals scored in 2025.

8.65 - how much Lionel Messi outperformed his own xG

Messi's goalscoring stats are impressive, but they tend to be downplayed because of his immense skill. Of course Messi won the Golden Boot, fans say. He's one of the greatest players of all time. It'd be embarrassing if he didn't.

That's not the right way to think about it. Of course Messi excels when judged against his peers; he always has, and his recent performances show that he probably always will. It's more interesting to judge him against his own standard.

xG — a soccer stat meaning "expected goals," aka the number of goals a player should've scored given their time on the field, involvement in key chances and finishing skills — is a great way to do that. According to his own xG figure, Messi should've scored 20.35 goals this season ... but he outperformed that figure by nearly nine goals. 

That's one of the biggest xG overperformances among top MLS goalscorers in 2025. Only Cincinnati's Evander, who scored 18 despite being expected to score 8.83, did better.

10 - number of 2+ goal games in 2025

Messi's goals came in bunches this season. He scored nine braces and one hat trick to record a whopping 10 multi-goal games in 2025. Deepest condolences to Nashville SC, a team that found itself on the wrong end of a Messi multi-goal game twice in 2025 ... and has to face him three more times in the opening round of the MLS Cup Playoffs. Gulp.

28 - number of games played

The biggest criticism against Messi in 2024 was his lack of availability. Between Argentina national team appearances, niggling injuries and a lack of interest in playing on turf, Messi only played 19 games for Miami across that season. It was still enough to earn him the league MVP vote, but the truth remained that he didn't show up as often as his competitors did.

That wasn't the case in 2025. Messi stayed fit throughout a grueling season and appeared in 28 of Miami's 34 games. Despite playing for Miami in multiple competitions, Messi hung in there ... and made the one criticism he received in 2024 disappear. Messi and Miami will kick off their 2025 MLS Cup journey at home against Nashville SC on Friday, Oct. 24 at 8:00 p.m. ET.