Inter Miami CF forward Leonardo Campana was voted the MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire for Matchday 31 of the 2023 MLS regular season.
The Ecuadorian striker earned the honors after putting on a brilliant display in the team’s comeback win against Sporting Kansas City, scoring his second brace of the 2023 MLS regular season campaign and fourth multi-goal game of his MLS career, with his most recent coming on April 29, 2023 against Columbus Crew. Campana’s sterling offensive performance also earned him a spot in the MLS Team of the Matchday for Matchday 31, his third MLS TOTM honors this year.
Campana’s brilliance began in the 25th minute when he converted a penalty, placing the shot towards the bottom right corner, leveling the game at one and kicking off the team’s comeback. Just before the halftime break, the striker would find the back of the net once again, giving Inter Miami the go-ahead goal after receiving the ball in the far post from right back DeAndre Yedlin, where Campana was able to head one past the Kansas City’s goalkeeper. This marked his second and last goal of the night, as well as his seventh MLS goal this season and ninth overall in 2023.
Campana’s influential showing on Saturday night helped The Herons earn the full three points against Sporting Kansas City and extend its ongoing Club-record unbeaten streak to 12. His performance also ranked him first for the most goals (seven) in the team this MLS regular season and second with the most multi-goal games in Club history, just behind former forward Gonzalo Higuaín with five.
So far this MLS regular season, Campana has made 20 appearances, 12 of them starts, while netting seven goals and dishing out two assists. In all competitions, he has now tallied nine goals and three assists while featuring for Inter Miami 30 times.
This is the second time Campana has been voted MLS Player of the Matchday this season as he earned the honor earlier this campaign during Week 10 against Columbus Crew at Lower.com Field. This also marks the attacker’s third MLS Player of the Matchday selection in his MLS career, the most in Inter Miami history, and makes him the second player in Club history to earn multiple MLS Player of the Week honors, following Higuaín’s player of the week nominees in 2021 and 2022.
The MLS Player of the Matchday presented by Continental Tire is selected each matchday of the regular season through both media and fan voting in a process conducted by MLS Communications. A panel of journalists from the North American Soccer Reporters (NASR) comprises 75 percent of the vote, while a Twitter fan vote represents the remaining 25 percent of voting. NASR consists of members of print, television, radio, and online media.
