Messi & Salah among the 5 players with the most goals & assists in 2022-23
The players to have registered the most goals and assists in European football this season features some familiar names – from the old guard to the new generation set to dominate for years to come.
Superstars from PSG, Liverpool, Real Madrid and Manchester City make up Europe’s most lethal players – in terms of both finishing and creating chances.
Here are the top five players for goals and assists across all competitions in 2022-23.
5. Lionel Messi – 40 (20 goals, 20 assists)
PSG have endured an underwhelming campaign, but they will retain their Ligue 1 crown in large part to Messi looking back to his best.
The Argentinian icon’s debut season in Paris was mediocre by his own lofty standards, but he’s looked inspired in 2022-23. Sandwiching his heroics out in Qatar, the 35-year-old has notched 15 goals and 16 assists in the French top flight.
Messi is also the only player to register 20 goals and 20 assists in all competitions this season.
4. Vinicius Junior – 44 (23 goals, 21 assists)
The Brazilian forward’s rapid ascent continues unabated.
After scoring the match-winner in last season’s Champions League final, Vinicius just gets better and better. The 22-year-old has already registered his career-best numbers with 44 goal contributions in all competitions for Real Madrid this season.
“It is not fair that a poor young man who succeeded in life and who is becoming one of the best footballers [in the world],” Brazil president Lula said after the latest disgusting episode of racism aimed at Vinicius. Those aren’t empty words – they’re backed up by his outstanding numbers.
“We cannot allow fascism and racism to take over football stadiums,” Lula added. Hear, hear.
3. Mohamed Salah – 45 (30 goals, 15 assists)
Liverpool’s 2022-23 season has not quite gone to plan.
After ending up only a couple of wins away from a historic quadruple last term, Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have ended the 2022-23 without any silverware and their hope of qualifying for the Champions League is hanging by a thread.
Some diagnosed Salah’s drop-off in form as part of the problem, suggesting Liverpool’s Egyptian King hasn’t quite been the same since last year’s Africa Cup Of Nations. The 30-year-old has emphatically proven the doubters wrong since then, registering extraordinary numbers (30 goals, 15 assists) – which is arguably even more impressive they’ve come for an otherwise underperforming team.
2. Kylian Mbappe – 49 (40 goals, 9 assists)
Messi isn’t the only footballing genius to have added some gloss to an otherwise disappointing season for PSG, with Mbappe delivering big time.
The forward has scored 28 goals in Ligue 1 for the Parisiens, a tally bettered only by Haaland and Harry Kane in Europe’s major leagues.
Mbappe has scored 51 goals in all competitions for club and country this season. That’s just two off the all-time record set by Les Bleus legend Just Fontaine in 1957-58. With two games left to play, you wouldn’t back against him doing it.
Kylian Mbappé – 2022/23
Voici la « pire saison » de Kylian Mbappé selon les experts Twitter pic.twitter.com/3BWUdpbWJj
— GioKM7🇫🇷 (@mbappenewgoat) May 19, 2023
1. Erling Haaland – 61 (52 goals, 9 assists)
For well over a decade, Messi and Ronaldo dominated the top-end of this list. Mbappe and Haaland have been talked up as their generation’s answer to the era-defining duo – and it would be no surprise to see these two players top these charts for many more years to come.
In truth, the Norwegian striker has blown Mbappe – and everyone else in Europe – out of the water with his starring role in Manchester City’s treble-chasing campaign. His record-breaking 36 Premier League goals means that a first European Golden Shoe is already in the bag, while his 12 Champions League goals have all but confirmed his place as that competition’s top scorer too.
Haaland has already enjoyed one of the all-time great individual campaigns for Manchester City, but his place in the annals of football history will well and truly be secured if he can see City over the line with more contributions in the upcoming FA Cup and Champions League finals.
READ NEXT: The top 10 goalscorers in Europe since Lionel Messi’s Barcelona debut