MLS: Josef Martinez deserves MVP because of history, not value

Josef Martinez has been named the MLS MVP. He deserves the award, but not because of his value to Atlanta United, but because of his record-setting feats.

MVP. Most. Valuable. Player. The award, really, is named wrong. In any sport, when the MVP award is handed out, it is never actually voted upon based on which player has the most value.

In NFL, quarterbacks would win it every single year — they do predominantly win it, but the fact that Aaron Donald and Todd Gurley are being considered this year proves that ‘value’ has little do with it.

In the Premier League, the same award is called the Player of the Year: literally, the best player of that particular year. What MVP tries to do is define ‘best’, using the word ‘value’. That is all well and good, but sometimes the most valuable player is not the player who deserves the recognition as being the best individual in the league that particular season.

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In Major League Soccer, this year, Josef Martinez was named as the Landon Donovan MVP.  The official announcement came this week, with Martinez up against the likes of Wayne Rooney, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Carlos Vela.

If the MVP is merely a caravan to reward the best player of the season, then Martinez deserves it. He has had a historically great season. 31 regular season is a staggering achievement, shattering the previous single-season record of 27, shared by Bradley Wright-Phillips, Chris Wondolowski and Roy Lassiter. Per that alone, he deserves such recognition.

But if the MVP award is indeed a question of value, then Martinez is not even the most valuable player on his own team, nevermind across the whole league.

Miguel Almiron, who was also nominated for the award and finished second in the voting, is far more integral to the way Atlanta United play than Martinez is. That is not to demean the quality and importance of Martinez’s goals and finishing ability, but Almiron is the individual who makes the team tick, not Martinez. He is the most valuable player.

And that does not include the season-changing influences of Rooney and Ibrahimovic, two players that singlehandedly completely revolutionised their respective teams. Surely they are more ‘valuable’ to their teams than the man who simply finishes the chances?

In that respect, they are. But that would be missing the actual point of the award. MVP, while meaning Most Valuable Player, does not necessarily award the player of the most value for that particular season. It is simply a vehicle with which to recognise the brilliance of a certain individual across that year. And this year, in MLS, that was Martinez.

The Atlanta striker is not the Most Valuable Player in MLS. He is not the Most Valuable Player in his team. But he is still deserving of the award, for history’s sake, not value’s.