Take a gander through past winners of Major League Soccer's MVP award and you will spy some of the league's legends. There's inaugural winner Carlos Valderrama to Preki to Robbie Keane to Sebastian Giovinco to David Villa and that Landon Donovan fellow, after whom the award is now named.
Yet the triumvirate comprising the finalists for this year's edition might be the most star-studded ever. There's last year's winner, Josef Martinez of Atlanta United, as well as the LA Galaxy's Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a man as lethal with his words as he is with his feet. Then there is this season's record-breaker for goals, Carlos Vela of LAFC.