Nashville SC’s Hany Mukhtar Is Entering All-Time MLS Great Territory

If you’ve browsed MLSsoccer.com any time between when Lionel Messi announced his intention to come to Inter Miami and … well … now … you’d be forgiven for thinking the league has no other stars worth promoting and that maybe there weren’t any games this weekend.

It’s all Messi all the time, which is understandable given the enormous profile the Argentine World Cup winner and seven time Ballon d’Or recipient carries to nearly any other athlete in America, let alone in MLS. Forbes.com has certainly participated in the Messi news feast as well with multiple articles about the former Barcelona star’s move and potential impact on MLS and American soccer.

But there are other captivating going on in the league every week while we await Messi’s arrival. And these days, done are more so than the continuing sizzling form of Nashville SC captain and talisman Hany Mukhtar.

On Saturday night, the 28-year-old Mukhtar scored his fourth career MLS hat trick and second of the season to push his season total to 13 goals and take a three-goal lead in the MLS Golden Boot race. There are reasons to like some of the other Golden Boot contenders still — the analytics are very favorable toward Atlanta’s Giorgos Giakoumakis — but whether Mukhtar wins the award or not is secondary to the run of consecutive exceptional seasons he is now stringing together.

Here’s what Apple TV’s Taylor Twellman — one of five two-time MLS Golden Boot winners in the league’s history — toward the end of Nashville’s 3-1 win over St. Louis City on Saturday night.

“On one hand, top five players in this league, I would be stunned when it’s all said and done if we’re not talking about Hany Mukhtar. Out of all time,” Twellman said. “Just because it’s been consistent at a high rate. It’s one thing to do it one year, it’s another thing to do it another. Since Covid, the guy has been unstoppable, unflappable and also available. Remarkable.”

When oddsmakers next post odds for the MLS Golden Boot winner, Mukhtar is bound to be the solid favorite. And since he also serves as Nashville’s best chance creator he might be considered even more likely to win a second consecutive MLS MVP award.

If he accomplishes either, he would be the first player in MLS history to do so in back-to-back seasons, which is pretty remarkable for a league that now more than a quarter-decade old. For all the sensational clusters of seasons players like Sebastian Giovinco, David Villa, Carlos Vela and Josef Martinez put together over the last decade, none ever accomplished either feat.

With 82 goal involvements (goals + assists) since the start of the 2021 season, Mukhtar is also 10 shy of the record for a three-season stretch. That mark was set by Toronto FC’s Giovinco between 2015 and 2017 with half a season to go. And what makes Mukhtar’s challenge to that total even more remarkable is he’s doing it with considerably less support. So far, the German-born star has figured in 60.7% of his team’s goals since the start of the 2021 MLS campaign. Giovinco only had goal involvements on 50.3% of Toronto’s goals in his three-year run.

It took a while, but when Toronto made a run to the 2018 Concacaf Champions League final, even media in Mexico began to discuss Giovinco as among the best players not only in MLS, but on the entire continent. While Nashville has yet to play continental football, Mukhtar will have a chance to enter that discussion with a strong showing at the Leagues Cup contested between MLS and Liga MX teams later this summer.

Regardless, what he’s doing puts him on a very short list of MLS players, and at an age that was a little earlier than most others comparables accomplished their feats. And he has more or less remained healthy for the majority of his MLS career.

If that continues, he could have three to five more seasons of this kind of production in MLS. And if he does, the discussion won’t center around whether Mukhtar deserves to be considered worthy of the MLS version of Mount Rushmore, but who the others are who deserve to join him.