Most of all, All-Star games are showcases. They’re opportunities for a selection of a league’s best players to demonstrate their skills in front of a packed crowd. When you see an All-Star roster, you want to be entertained – and you want to see the best.
The same is true for the MLS All-Star Game’s highest honor: the captain. The All-Stars’ All-Star, if you will. And with this year's roster announced, it's time for the 2025 MLS All-Star Captain Fan Vote presented by Captain Morgan.
The four nominees are:
- Denis Bouanga - LAFC
- Evander - FC Cincinnati
- Lionel Messi - Inter Miami CF
- Brandon Vazquez - Austin FC
Here's why each one deserves your vote to lead the charge against the best from LIGA MX on July 23 at Austin FC’s Q2 Stadium (9 pm ET | MLS Season Pass).
Campaign slogan: You want fun? I’ll give you fun.
I’ve got a stat for you, dear reader: no player with more than 200 minutes to his name in MLS this year completes more dribbles than Denis Bouanga on a per-90-minute basis. With his 4.05 successful dribbles per 90, according to FBref, the LAFC winger is the league’s dominant one-v-one attacking force. And in an All-Star game with an audience just itching to “ooo” and “ahh” on every touch, there’s no player more likely to take the game to the opposition and draw those very sounds from the crowd than Bouanga.
It’s not just Bouanga’s love for one-v-one (or one-v-two) dribbling that makes him a perfect candidate for the captaincy. It’s also his love for shooting. Only Lionel Messi has taken more shots on a per-90-minute basis than Bouanga this year, among players who have started regularly in MLS this season. At 4.79 shots per 90, Bouanga is ready to let rip at a moment’s notice.
If you want top-speed attacking action in this month’s All-Star game, you want Bouanga.
Campaign slogan: I did it in Portland, I’m doing it in Cincinnati, let me do it in Austin.
By “it," of course, I mean changing games in the attack.
While Evander isn’t quite on pace to equal his numbers from last season with the Portland Timbers, he’s still been incredibly productive as the No. 10 in Pat Noonan’s FC Cincinnati team. The Brazilian is in the 99th percentile for non-penalty goals per 90 minutes among his positional peers, according to FBref. He’s also in the 98th percentile for shot-creating actions among that same group of players, finding looks for himself and threading through balls into his teammates at a top-level clip.
That Evander has maintained so much of his productivity despite a change of scenery late in the offseason is a testament to his skill. Throughout MLS history, seeing a player of Evander’s quality have success at two different stops within the league has been wildly rare. Now, thanks to MLS’s new cash trade rule, we’ve seen Evander put up impressive numbers for two different teams, in two different conferences and over multiple seasons.
If you want a reliably excellent – and downright mesmerizing to watch – attacking midfielder leading the way against the LIGA MX All-Stars, Evander is sitting there waiting for your vote.
Campaign slogan: Vote for the GOAT.
Allow me to repeat what I wrote about Lionel Messi in last year’s version of this piece: If the captain's armband indeed goes to the All-Star’s All-Star, it should go to Lionel Messi.
Whenever the final whistle blows for a game featuring Messi, he’s No. 1 on every player’s postgame jersey swap list. He’s your favorite band’s favorite band, if that band were the most famous band in the world. But because Messi couldn't participate in 2024’s All-Star festivities after suffering an injury while playing with Argentina in the Copa América final, we’re yet to see him with the armband for this event.
That could change come July 23 – and for good reason.
Inter Miami’s superstar leads MLS players with at least 400 minutes played in goal contributions per 90 minutes, according to FBref, sitting at a staggering 1.21. Translation? The guy is good for a scoreline-changing play more than once every game. And it’s not just the box-score stats that adore Messi. It’s the underlying numbers, too. No player in MLS does more to create chances for himself and his teammates than Messi, who leads regular starters in MLS in non-penalty expected goals plus expected assisted goals per 90 minutes this season.
Messi isn’t just the most popular player in MLS or the most well-known player who’s up for this year’s armband. He’s also the best one.
Campaign slogan: Give the people what they want.
Last year, Lucho Acosta was voted in as captain of the 2024 MLS All-Stars for their battle against LIGA MX at the Crew’s Lower.com Field, despite suiting up for Columbus’ in-state rivals FC Cincinnati. Lucho wore the armband in front of a heavily pro-Crew crowd. This year, Brandon Vazquez could reverse that trend by becoming the latest hometown captain for the MLS All-Stars.
If All-Star games are supposed to entertain – and they are! – what better way is there to entertain the home crowd at Q2 Stadium than by placing the armband on Austin FC’s leading goalscorer?
Make no mistake, Vazquez’s best argument to be made captain is a narrative one. Between his hometown status and previous stop in LIGA MX for CF Monterrey, plenty of the striker’s past experiences make him the perfect fit for this honor. Give the good folks down in Austin what they want: hand the captaincy to Vazquez and watch him go to work.
