Argentine Lionel Messi of Inter Miami and Gabonese Denis Bouanga of LAFC were selected to the Major League Soccer (MLS) ideal eleven for the 2025 regular season, the league announced Wednesday.

Both are once again part of the ideal team after also being selected for the 2024 season.

Messi, playing for Inter Miami, finished the regular season as the league's top scorer with 29 goals, while Bouanga reached 23 goals in the 2025 regular season, finishing second to the World Cup winner with Argentina in the race for the Golden Boot.

Bouanga, the LAFC icon, also became the first player in MLS to score at least 20 goals in three consecutive seasons. With this addition to the honor roll, he achieved three consecutive appearances, equaling the record set by Josef Martinez with Atlanta United between 2017 and 2019.

The ideal eleven is completed by Dayne St. Clair (Minnesota United) in goal; Tristan Blackmon (Vancouver), Alex Freeman (Orlando City), Jakob Glesnes (Philadelphia), and Kai Wagner (Philadelphia) in defense; Evander (Cincinnati FC), Sebastian Berhalter (Vancouver), and Cristian Roldan (Seattle Sounders) in midfield; and forwards Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Denis Bouanga (LAFC), and Anders Dreyer (San Diego).

The 2025 team, with five players from the United States and Canada, reflects a decrease in the prominence of Latin American or Spanish players compared to last season, since in 2024 the MLS Best XI included Messi, Evander, Luciano Acosta, Colombians Cucho Hernandez and Yeimar Gomez, and former Barcelona players Jordi Alba and Riqui Puig.