# Landon Donovan MVP Award

The Landon Donovan MVP Award is an annual award for Major League Soccer players. It is voted on by media, MLS players, and club management and is given to the player deemed the most valuable player in the league each season.
From 1996 to 2007, the award was known as the Honda MLS Most Valuable Player, for commercial purposes. From 2007 to 2014, the award was titled the Volkswagen MLS Most Valuable Player.
Players for D.C. United have won the award a record four times, while Kansas City and Los Angeles Galaxy players have won a second best three times. Carlos Valderrama won the award for the inaugural 1996 season. Kansas City's Preki is the only player to ever win twice, in 1997 and 2003.
On January 15, 2015, MLS renamed its MVP award in honor of Landon Donovan.

## Winners

| Season | Player | Club | Other Finalists |
| 1996 | Carlos Valderrama | Tampa Bay Mutiny | Roy Lassiter, Preki |
| 1997 | Preki | Kansas City Wizards | Marco Etcheverry, Carlos Valderrama |
| 1998 | Marco Etcheverry | D.C. United | Cobi Jones, Peter Nowak |
| 1999 | Jason Kreis | Dallas Burn | Marco Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno |
| 2000 | Tony Meola | Kansas City Wizards | Mamadou Diallo, Clint Mathis |
| 2001 | Álex Pineda Chacón | Miami Fusion | Jeff Agoos, Diego Serna |
| 2002 | Carlos Ruíz | Los Angeles Galaxy | Mark Chung, Taylor Twellman |
| 2003 | Preki (2) | Kansas City Wizards | Ante Razov, John Spencer |
| 2004 | Amado Guevara | MetroStars | Joe Cannon, Jaime Moreno |
| 2005 | Taylor Twellman | New England Revolution | Dwayne De Rosario, Jaime Moreno |
| 2006 | Christian Gómez | D.C. United | Jeff Cunningham, Dwayne De Rosario |
| 2007 | Luciano Emílio | D.C. United | Juan Pablo Ángel, Cuauhtémoc Blanco |
| 2008 | Guillermo Barros Schelotto | Columbus Crew | Landon Donovan, Cuauhtémoc Blanco |
| 2009 | Landon Donovan | Los Angeles Galaxy | Shalrie Joseph, Jeff Cunningham |
| 2010 | David Ferreira | FC Dallas | Edson Buddle, Chris Wondolowski |
| 2011 | Dwayne De Rosario | D.C. United | Brad Davis, Brek Shea |
| 2012 | Chris Wondolowski | San Jose Earthquakes | Thierry Henry, Graham Zusi |
| 2013 | Mike Magee | Chicago Fire | Robbie Keane, Marco Di Vaio |
| 2014 | Robbie Keane | Los Angeles Galaxy | Lee Nguyen, Obafemi Martins |
| 2015 | Sebastian Giovinco | Toronto FC | Kei Kamara, Benny Feilhaber |
| 2016 | David Villa | New York City FC | Bradley Wright-Phillips, Sacha Kljestan |
| 2017 | Diego Valeri | Portland Timbers | David Villa, Nemanja Nikolić |
| 2018 | Josef Martínez | Atlanta United FC | Miguel Almirón, Zlatan Ibrahimović |
| 2019 | Carlos Vela | Los Angeles FC | Zlatan Ibrahimović, Josef Martínez |
| 2020 | Alejandro Pozuelo | Toronto FC | Andre Blake, Nicolás Lodeiro, Jordan Morris, Diego Rossi |
| 2021 | Carles Gil | New England Revolution | Hany Mukhtar, João Paulo, Dániel Sallói, Valentín Castellanos |
| 2022 | Hany Mukhtar | Nashville SC | Sebastián Driussi, Andre Blake |
| 2023 | Luciano Acosta | FC Cincinnati | Thiago Almada, Denis Bouanga |
| 2024 | Lionel Messi | Inter Miami CF | Cucho Hernández, Evander |

## Wins by team

| Club | Wins |
| D.C. United | 4 |
| Kansas City Wizards/Sporting KC | 3 |
| LA Galaxy | 3 |
| Dallas Burn/FC Dallas | 2 |
| New England Revolution | 2 |
| Toronto FC | 2 |
| Atlanta United FC | 1 |
| Chicago Fire | 1 |
| FC Cincinnati | 1 |
| Columbus Crew | 1 |
| Inter Miami CF | 1 |
| Los Angeles FC | 1 |
| Miami Fusion | 1 |
| Nashville SC | 1 |
| New York City FC | 1 |
| NY/NJ MetroStars/New York Red Bulls | 1 |
| Portland Timbers | 1 |
| San Jose Earthquakes | 1 |
| Tampa Bay Mutiny | 1 |

## Wins by nationality

| Nationality | Wins |
| United States | 8 |
| Argentina | 5 |
| Spain | 3 |
| Colombia | 2 |
| Honduras | 2 |
| Bolivia | 1 |
| Brazil | 1 |
| Canada | 1 |
| Germany | 1 |
| Guatemala | 1 |
| Ireland | 1 |
| Italy | 1 |
| Mexico | 1 |
| Venezuela | 1 |