Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami regain top MLS spot in latest CONCACAF rankings but miss overall Top 3
Lionel Messi's great form has led Inter Miami to take the top MLS spot in the CONCACAF rankings, though they're still trailing the overall Top 3. Lionel Messi has been the driving force behind an Inter Miami side that has spent the first portion of the 2026 season rediscovering the form that carried them to the MLS Cup title last year. The progress is now showing in the standings, with the Herons reclaiming their status as the top MLS club in the CONCACAF rankings, though they still find themselves outside the overall top three. Back in March, Inter Miami suffered a significant setback with their Round of 16 exit from the CONCACAF Champions Cup at the hands of Nashville, and a string of poor results through early April sent them tumbling to seventh in the rankings. Since then, the club has undergone a reset, including the dismissal of Javier Mascherano and the appointment of Guillermo Hoyos, and the results on the pitch have followed. With CONCACAF releasing its latest club ranking update on May 18, Inter Miami have climbed from sixth to fourth overall, now sitting as the highest-ranked MLS side on the list. LAFC and the Seattle Sounders had been positioned above them, but both clubs have shed points in the most recent update following difficult stretches of form. After a strong start to the season, LAFC hit a wall in May, falling in the Champions Cup semifinals against Toluca and then collecting just one draw and three consecutive MLS defeats. The Sounders followed a similar trajectory, bowing out of the Champions Cup in the quarterfinals to Tigres UANL before managing only one win, two draws and one defeat in May league play. Germán Berterame #19 celebrates with Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami. Messi’s contribution to Inter Miami’s revival Hoyos took charge of his first Inter Miami match on April 18 against the Colorado Rapids, and under the Argentine coach the team has found a level of consistency that was largely absent earlier in the season. A significant factor in that turnaround, beyond the improvement from several players across the squad, has been Lionel Messi returning to his best form. Since that Colorado Rapids fixture, Messi has featured in seven games, scoring seven goals and adding five assists. In May alone across four appearances, he has posted four goals and four assists, performances that have positioned him as the leading candidate for the MLS Player of the Month award. Who sits at the top of the CONCACAF rankings? Over the stretch that includes the Colorado match, Inter Miami have posted five wins, one draw and one defeat with 20 goals scored, accumulating 1,241 points in the CONCACAF index. Despite the momentum, the gap between the Herons and the Liga MX clubs occupying the top three remains considerable. Tigres UANL and Deportivo Toluca hold the top two spots with 1,277 and 1,276 points respectively, as the two CONCACAF Champions Cup finalists. Cruz Azul, who reached the quarterfinals and are set to face Pumas UNAM in the Liga MX Clausura final, sit third with 1,258 points, leaving a 17-point gap between them and the highest-ranked MLS club.
