In a rather unexpectedly astonishing development, World Cup winner and Inter Miami's star forward Lionel Messi has been excluded from the list of best players of the Major League Soccer's (MLS) 2023 season, reported goal.com.
The creative announcement was made on MLS's official X account showing a group chat titled "MLS Best XI" with the admin's message saying, "Alright! We wanted you guys to hear it first: You're all part of the 2023 MLS Best XI!"
However, Messi, who joined David Beckham-owned Inter Miami in July earlier this year, failed to make the list of the league's best players.
Messi's exclusion from the list might seem astonishing to some fans as the former Barcelona striker has made a significant impact in boosting the league's popularity around the world and in the United States as well.
However, according to goal.com, Messi's exclusion from the league's Best XI — based primarily on players' performances in regular season matches — is no surprise as the Argentine forward only featured in six regular season games.
Despite Messi's snub, the list included some new recognised and fresh faces as well with the likes of MLS Golden Boot winner Denis Bouanga, Cucho Hernandez, Matt Miazga and Giorgos Giakoumakis.
Furthermore, Walker Zimmerman also made it to the league's best players for the fifth consecutive time.
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