The top assister across world football from every year since 2010: Messi, Neymar…
Former Barcelona, Chelsea, and Real Madrid stars are among the top assisters across world football from every year since 2010.
The ability to create chances is one of the most important aspects of football and the guys on this list are some of the best playmakers on the planet.
We’ve found the top assister from every year since 2010 from across world football. For the purposes of this article, only assists at club level have been counted.
2010 – Moubarak Boussoufa (25 assists)
Narrowly beating the likes of Angel Di Maria and Mesut Ozil, Boussoufa ended the calendar year of 2010 with the most assists.
The Moroccan playmaker was playing for Anderlecht at the time and averaged an assist every 142 minutes that year.
2011 – Lionel Messi (30 assists)
Messi was an absolute beast in 2011, along with providing 30 assists he also scored a whopping 55 goals that year as Barcelona won the Champions League.
2012 – Eden Hazard & Franck Ribery (28 assists)
The top assister of 2012 is a shared prize between Hazard and Ribery.
Hazard spent the first half of 2012 smashing it for Lille and he then made the switch to Chelsea that summer. In terms of creativity, he’s one of the best players the Premier League has ever seen.
Ribery also enjoyed a fantastic year in 2012 as he averaged 0.61 assists per game for Bayern Munich.
2013 – Mesut Ozil & Valentin Stocker (25 assists)
Ozil was only a few assists away from being the top assister of 2010, 2011 and 2012 which puts into perspective just how good he was during his peak.
In 2013, he finally came out on top as he produced an impressive 25 assists while playing for both Real Madrid and Arsenal.
That was the same number of assists that Stocker managed in 2013 as the former FC Basel playmaker was also in fine form that year.
2014 – Cristiano Ronaldo & Kevin Kampl (27 assists)
CR7 is predominately known for his goalscoring abilities, so his playmaking skills are often overlooked. It’s worth noting that this is someone who has produced over 200 assists throughout his career.
Along with scoring more goals than anyone else on the planet in 2014, Ronaldo also came out on top in assists too.
Kampl did manage to keep pace with him though as the former Red Bull Salzburg star also produced 27 assists that year.
2015 – Kevin De Bruyne (28 assists)
Having managed one more assist than Messi in 2015, De Bruyne takes the top spot as 2015’s best playmaker.
He spent the first half of the year at Wolfsburg and then quickly made an impact at Manchester City upon his return to the Premier League.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 30 players with the most assists in Premier League history?
2016 – Lionel Messi & Neymar (28 assists)
Barcelona scored a ridiculous amount of goals throughout 2016 and while Luis Suarez was sticking most of them away, Messi and Neymar were creating most of the chances.
Suarez himself only just missed out on this list as he produced an impressive 25 assists that year. MSN truly were something special.
2017 – Neymar & Hulk (27 assists)
Both Brazilians came out on top in 2017 with 27 assists each.
Neymar made the lucrative switch to PSG in the summer of 2017 and he quickly made an impact in his new surroundings.
Hulk on the other hand was playing in the Chinese Super League back in 2017 and was absolutely dominating the competition.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name the 35 players with the most Champions League assists of all time?
2018 – Zakaria Beglarishvili (28 assists)
Narrowly beating the likes of Messi, Suarez and Dimitri Payet, Beglarishvili took the 2018 top assister crown.
The Georgian attacking midfielder was playing for Estonian side FC Flora at the time and he averaged an impressive 0.67 assists per game throughout 2018.
2019 – Hakim Ziyech (34 assists)
Ajax were great fun to watch back in 2019 and around that time, Ziyech was their main creative hub.
Impressively, his teammate at the time, Dusan Tadic, was second on the list as he produced an impressive 31 assists in 2019.
2020 – Lionel Messi (26 assists)
During his final full year at Barcelona, Messi was practically doing everything at the club whether it was creating chances or sticking them away himself.
He has the most assists in La Liga history and would regularly put up 20+ assists per season.
2021 – Thomas Muller (32 assists)
For the first time in his career, Muller came out on top as the top assister over a full calendar year. The German forward was superb in 2021 as he averaged an assist every 125 minutes.
2022 – Maxime Lestienne (28 assists)
The Belgian winger made the switch to the Singapore Premier League in 2022 and he was a cut above the competition.
Lestienne narrowly beat his fellow countryman De Bruyne to the top assister prize in 2022 as he produced one more assist than the Man City star.
2023 – Maxime Lestienne (32 assists)
Impressively, Lestienne has claimed the prize for two years running as he produced an impressive 32 assists throughout the calendar year of 2023.
2024 – Oscar & Denis Bouanga (18 assists so far)
As of writing, former Chelsea star Oscar and LAFC winger Bouanga are leading the way for assists in 2024.
We can’t believe that Oscar is still playing in the Chinese Super League today but here we are. In 23 games for Shanghai Port, he’s produced 18 assists so far.
Bouanga has been keeping that same pace with 18 assists himself up until this point.