In association football, an assist is a contribution leading to the scoring of a goal, where the contribution is made by someone on the scoring team other than the scorer. Statistics for assists made by players may be kept officially by the organisers of a competition, or unofficially by, for example, journalists or organisers of fantasy football competitions. Recording assists is not part of the official Laws of the Game and the criteria for an assist to be awarded may vary. Record of assists was virtually not kept at all until the end of the 20th century, although reports of matches commonly described a player as having "made" one or more goals. Since the 1990s, some leagues have kept official record of assists and based awards on them.
The separate player statistics "goals " and "assists" may be aggregated to a statistic called "[goal] contributions" or "[goal] involvements" (analogous to what is called a point in ice hockey).
Criteria Most commonly, an assist is credited to a player for passing or crossing the ball to the scorer. It may also be awarded to a player whose shot rebounds (off a defender, goalkeeper or goalpost) to a teammate who scores. Some systems may credit an assist to a player who wins a penalty kick or a free kick for another player to convert, or to an attacking player for contributing to an own goal. A goal may be unassisted, or have one assist; some systems allow for two assists.
Opta criteria Opta, a British sports analytics company and the official provider of Premier League statistics, defines an assist as "The final touch from a teammate, which leads to the recipient of the ball scoring a goal". Opta requires that if the assist is deflected by an opposition player, it must be deemed as travelling to the goalscorer irrespective of the deflection. Also according to Opta, "in the event of an own goal, direct free kick goal, and direct corner goal, an assist will not be awarded. This same rule applies to penalties unless the penalty taker chooses to pass the ball for another player to score."
According to Opta, an assist is not awarded in the following cases:
Goals scored directly from penalty kicks, direct free kicks, or corner-kicks Own goals Deflected or rebounded balls from opponents that affected the ball's delivery to the goal scorer. Balls rebounded off the post.
Opta attest that this strict definition makes assist statistics more accurate and fair in analyzing players' sports performance.
FIFA World Cup
FIFA's Technical Study Group is responsible for awarding assist points at the FIFA World Cup. In the Technical Study Group's report on the 1986 World Cup, the authors calculated for the first time unofficial statistics for assists, developing the following criteria: An assist was awarded to the player who had given the last pass to the goalscorer. In addition, the last but two holder of the ball could get an assist provided that his action had decisive importance for the goal. After goals from rebounds those players were awarded an assist who had shot on target. After goals scored on penalty or by a directly converted free-kick the fouled player received a point. In case that the goalscorer had laid on the goal for himself (dribble, solo run), no assists were awarded. No assists were awarded, either, if the goalscorer took advantage of a missed pass by an opponent.
The 1990 World Cup technical report adopted similar criteria, but changed the free-kick/penalty criterion: Where goals resulting from penalties are concerned, the player who is fouled in the area receives an assist point (unless, that is, the player who is fouled subsequently executes the penalty himself).
Planet World Cup has calculated some retrospective data on assists back to the 1966 World Cup, though the 1986 data differs from that of FIFA.
FIFA started officially keeping track of assists in World Cup tournaments at the 1994 edition. This was popularly ascribed to the popularity of detailed sports statistics among fans. 1994 was also the first World Cup in which assists were used as a tie-breaker in determining the Golden Shoe award for top scorer. In the event, both Hristo Stoichkov and Oleg Salenko tied with 19 points, from 6 goals and 1 assist.
France The French league, Ligue 1, awards the Trophée de Meilleur Passeur ("best passer trophy") to the player with most "decisive passes" in a season, starting in the 2007–08 season. Sports newspaper L'Équipe had unofficially tracked assists for some years prior to then. The league's Commission des Compétitions includes blocked shots as a subset of "decisive passes". In 2012–13, Mathieu Valbuena and Dimitri Payet finished with 12 assists, Valbuena winning the trophy by having fewer blocked shots (3 against 5) among his total.
Spain For the 1998–99 La Liga season, SDI sold its Gecasport database to Spanish media, in which were described as "passes which lead immediately to a shot and goal".; ;
Ukraine In Ukraine, a traceable documentation of assists calculation started out by Ukrainian newspaper "Komanda" during the 2004–05 season of the Ukrainian Higher League (Vyshcha Liha). The calculation of assist has certain problems to establish what is the "last pass" which led to a scored goal. Different institutions have own perception of it. Some specialists consider that an assist has to be a deliberate action meaning that it does not include the situation when a ball randomly rebounded to a scoring striker.
United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, official game statistics, including assists, for the Premier League, the Scottish Premiership, and the English Football League are provided by PA Sport under the Actim brand. Since the 2006–07 season, assists have been factored into the Actim Index of Premier League player performance. The assist statistics provided by fantasy football competitions may differ from the Actim data; some uniformly credit an assist to whichever teammate last touched the ball before the scorer, regardless of other circumstances of the play. The Premier League Playmaker of the Season award was introduced in the 2017–18 Premier League for the player with most assists.
United States
The original North American Soccer League kept assist statistics from its foundation in 1968, as its forebears the United Soccer Association and National Professional Soccer League had done the previous year. Analogous statistics were already being kept in basketball and in ice hockey, both established North American sports.
Major League Soccer formerly awarded the MLS Golden Boot based on 2 points per goal scored and one per assist.
The NCAA makes regulations for statistics, including assists, in college soccer in the U.S. Two players may be credited with assists if the second did not have to beat a defender before passing to the scorer.NCAA Official Soccer Statistics Rules, §5.Art 1.(1) No assist is awarded for winning a penalty.NCAA Official Soccer Statistics Rules, §5.Art 1.(3) If a goal is scored after a save, block, or rebound from the goal frame, the first shooter gets an assist.NCAA Official Soccer Statistics Rules, §5.Art 1.(8),(9)
Statistics These totals are the official records recognised by the relevant governing body. Independent statistics providers may have different data, either through crediting different players for a given goal, or through having begun recording assists earlier or later than the official statistics provider. Expected assists (xA) is a performance metric that measures the likelihood that a completed pass becomes an assist, factoring in distance and the type of pass.
Players with most assists in all competitions (all-time) Notes: The criteria for an assist to be awarded may vary according to the source, the following stats is based on the assists criteria according to Opta, where assists are not counted for balls that are deflected or rebounded off opposing players and have clearly affected the trajectory of the ball and its arrival to the recipient (the goal scorer). Assists are also not counted for penalty kicks, direct goals from corners or free kicks, or own goals. These statistics are based on official matches only. At least 300 assists. Bold indicates players currently active. As of 2 October 2026.
Lionel Messi FW 2004– Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami, Argentina 424 1,177 Ferenc Puskás FW 1943–1966 Budapest Honvéd, Real Madrid, Hungary, Spain, Madrid 374 719 Pelé FW 1956–1977 Santos, New York Cosmos, Brazil 366 818 Johan Cruyff FW 1964–1984 Ajax, Barcelona, Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Levante, Feyenoord, Netherlands 358 761 Dušan Tadić MF 2006– Vojvodina, Groningen, Twente, Southampton, Ajax, Fenerbahçe, Al-Wahda, NEC Nijmegen, Serbia 325 966 Stanley Matthews FW 1932–1965 Stoke City, Blackpool, Toronto City, England 320 851 Alex MF 1995–2014 Coritiba, Palmeiras, Flamengo, Cruzeiro, Fenerbahce, Brasil 307 929 Kevin De Bruyne MF 2006– Genk, Chelsea, Werder Bremen, Napoli, Belgium 300 805
Players with most assists in international football (all-time) Bold indicates players currently active at international level. +RankPlayerTeamAssistsRefs1 Lionel MessiArgentina652 NeymarBrazil59 3 Landon DonovanUnited States584 Ferenc PuskásHungary535 Sándor KocsisHungary516 PeléBrazil477 Thomas MüllerGermany418 Luis SuárezUruguay399 Cristiano RonaldoPortugal37 Kevin De BruyneBelgium37
Players with most assists in a given competition (all-time) + Competition Recordsbegan Leading player(s) Team(s) Assists RefsFIFA World Cup 1930 Lionel MessiArgentina 12 UEFA European Championship 1960 Karel Poborský Czechia 8 Cristiano RonaldoPortugalCopa América 1916 Lionel MessiArgentina 18 FIFA Club World Cup 2000 Neri CardozoBoca Juniors, Monterrey 5 Shoma DoiKashima AntlersFIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) 1994 NeymarBrazil 19UEFA Champions League 1992 Ryan Giggs Manchester United 41 UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League 2001 Bořek DočkalSlovan Liberec, Rosenborg, Slavia Prague 26UEFA Super Cup 1973 Gareth Bale Real Madrid 3 Vitolo Sevilla, Atlético MadridPremier League 1992 Ryan GiggsManchester United 162 ; La Liga 1929 Lionel MessiBarcelona 192Serie A 1986 Francesco Totti Roma 158 Bundesliga 1992 Thomas MüllerBayern Munich 178 Major League Soccer 1996 Landon DonovanLA Galaxy 136Ligue 1 2001 Dimitri PayetNantes, Saint-Étienne, Lille, Marseille 115Brazilian Série A 2015 Giorgian de ArrascaetaCruzeiro, Flamengo 82
Players with most assists in a given competition (single season) +CompetitionPlayer(s)Team(s)AssistsSeason(s)RefsFIFA World Cup Raymond KopaFrance 8 1958 UEFA European Championship Ljubinko Drulović Yugoslavia 42000 Karel Poborský Czechia 2004 Eden Hazard Belgium2016 Aaron Ramsey Wales2016Copa América James Rodríguez Colombia 6 2024 UEFA Champions League Luís FigoBarcelona 9 1999–2000Major League Soccer Carlos ValderramaTampa Bay Mutiny 26 2000MLS Site La Liga MíchelReal Madrid21 1987–88 Lionel MessiBarcelona 2019–20Bundesliga Thomas MüllerBayern Munich 21 2019–20Premier League Bruno FernandesManchester United 21 2025–26Ligue 1 Ángel Di MaríaParis Saint-Germain 18 2015–16Serie A Federico DimarcoInter Milan 18 2025–26Brazilian Série A Darío ConcaFluminense 19 2010
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