European Assists King 2025/26: Mo Salah aims to defend title after big win

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 29 Jul 2025 15:03 BST
• 9 min read

Feature

An intriguing race to record the most assists in Europe for the 2025/26 football season is set to get under way, with Mohamed Salah coming into the campaign as the defending champion.

Liverpool forward Salah was named the European Assists King for the first time last season after racking up an impressive 18 assists in the Premier League.

That was enough for him to see off the challenge posed by Bayern Munich winger Michael Olise and Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal, who both had to settle for places on the podium despite recording impressive numbers.

READ MORE: Premier League Assists Standings

As well as topping the creative charts in England, Salah also won the Premier League Golden Boot award after netting 29 goals in a stunning individual year.

Florian Wirtz impressed in this award for Bayer Leverkusen in 2024/25, having also featured prominently in previous years, and he has now joined Salah at Anfield after making a big-money transfer move to England.

Whether that transfer impacts Mo Salah’s chances of retaining the award remains to be seen, but Liverpool clearly have two major contenders. Wirtz will also be boosted by potentially having four more matches to play and record assists, given the Bundesliga – where he has been playing until now – only runs for 34 games.

Bukayo Saka is also a leading candidate from the Premier League to be named the most creative player in Europe this season after injury derailed a stunning start to his campaign with Arsenal last time around, while Chelsea star Cole Palmer usually features prominently in the creative charts as well.

READ MORE: Premier League 2025/26 Top Scorers

Kevin De Bruyne is always a threat to have the most goals created too, having last triumphed in this European assist award in the 2022/23 campaign.

But the Belgium international will now be providing his creative talents for Napoli in Serie A after his glittering 10-year spell with Manchester City came to an end.

Rayan Cherki will hope to pick up the creative baton from De Bruyne for Man City after featuring prominently in the continental assist rankings with Lyon last year.

And another contender is Spain star Alex Baena. He has previously been the player with the most assists in Europe’s top five leagues, claiming a surprise success in 2023/24, and he will look to challenge for glory again having moved from Villarreal to Atletico Madrid.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2025/26 Standings

The 2025/26 European Assist King award will be won by the player who provides the most assists in the top five European leagues – the Premier League, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A and Ligue 1.

There are no coefficients or scales used for these leagues - just ranking the most goals created by each player in the top-five leagues condensed into a single table.

We will also track the players who produce the most assists in each of those five divisions individually and this page will be updated with the latest standings throughout the campaign.

Who has the most assists in Europe?

The 2025/26 action in Europe's top five leagues is close to getting under way, as the teams currently go through the final stages of their respective pre-season fixture calendars.

READ MORE: Manchester United 2025/26 Top Scorers

Premier League, LaLiga and Ligue 1 action will come first, with those three competitions set to begin on Friday August 15.

There will be one week longer to wait before Serie A and the Bundesliga start, with all eyes on how much of an impact De Bruyne will make with Napoli.

For now, we are displaying last season’s European Assist King standings, which will be updated with the 2025/26 creative charts after matchday one of the new campaign.

Most Assists in Europe: Previous Winners

Mo Salah had the most assists in Europe for the 2024/25 campaign, registering 18 in the Premier League.

Liverpool forward Salah finished top of the standings after a stunning individual campaign that also saw him win the EPL Golden Boot award with 29 goals.

Salah had two assists against Man Utd in the third match of the season at Old Trafford to make an impressive start. He surged clear in the standings around the Christmas period by setting up two goals in each of the Reds' huge away wins against Tottenham (6-3) and West Ham (5-0).

He was so far ahead that he ended up prevailing despite not registering an assist in any of Liverpool's last six matches, as his side celebrated Premier League title glory.

Salah finished three ahead of Bayern star Michael Olise, who topped the Bundesliga assist charts with 15 goals created. Lamine Yamal of Barcelona took the final spot on the podium by setting up 13 goals, which was enough for him to top the LaLiga standings.

Jacob Murphy and Florian Wirtz shared fourth place with 12 assists each.

Rayan Cherki and Gaetan Perrin were tied on 11 assists in the race to create the most goals in Ligue 1, with each of those players then going on to leave Lyon and Auxerre respectively in summer transfers.

With 10 assists for Napoli, it was Romelu Lukaku who topped the Serie A creative charts in 2024/25, finishing one clear of AC Milan's Christian Pulisic.

READ MORE: Champions League 2025/26 Top Scorers

The title for most assists in Europe was won by Villarreal attacking midfielder Alex Baena in the 2023/24 season.

Baena had 14 assists, finishing top of the standings just one clear of Ollie Watkins and Alejandro Grimaldo (both 13), who topped the creative charts in the Premier League and Bundesliga respectively.

There were seven players tied for fourth place with 11 assists each, including Cole Palmer and Leroy Sane.

It was a disappointing year for players in Serie A or Ligue 1, as no representative from either division made it into the final standings.

In Italy it was Paulo Dybala (Roma) and Rafael Leao (AC Milan) who finished joint top with nine assists.

In France, there were four players level at the top with a total of just eight goals created. They were Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele, Angel Gomes and Romain Del Castillo.

In the 2022/23 campaign, the European Assists King award was shared by three players. Lionel Messi (PSG), Kevin De Bruyne (Man City) and Antoine Griezmann (Atletico) all registered 16 assists to share the crown.

Messi's move from Paris Saint-Germain to Inter Miami in 2023 means the Argentina star, who has been one of the best creative players in Europe's top five leagues for more than a decade, is no longer part of this competition.

However, Messi did finish on a high in the European Assists King award with his triumph that year.

Of the other divisions, Dortmund star Raphael Guerreiro finished on top of the Bundesliga assists charts with 12 goals created. That meant he finished in a tie with Premier League duo Salah and Leandro Trossard for fourth place overall.

Napoli's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had the most assists in Serie A with 10.

Thomas Müller and Kylian Mbappe shared the European Assists King award in the 2021/22 season with a sensational 18 goals created each, beating Messi (14) into third place.

Salah (13) was again in a tie for fourth position overall that year after registering the most Premier League assists, while Domenico Berardi and Dembele (both 13) came out on top in Serie A and La Liga respectively, with Dembele at that point representing Barca.

Muller was named the European Assists King outright in each of the previous two seasons (2019/20 and 2020/21), as he recorded 40 assists across those campaigns in the Bundesliga.

The Bayern star finished five assists clear of joint runners-up Harry Kane and Filip Kostic in 2020/21, with 19 goals created in total.

Iago Aspas (13) had the most assists in La Liga that season, while Ruslan Malinovskiy and Memphis Depay (both 12) topped the assist charts in Serie A and Ligue 1 respectively.

Muller’s first crown came when he had 21 assists to only just beat Messi, who had 20 in La Liga 2019/20 for Barcelona. De Bruyne was another to narrowly miss out after he also set up 20 goals and topped the Premier League charts.

The award for most creative player in Europe in 2018/19 went to Eden Hazard. He had 15 assists for Chelsea, meaning he narrowly beat Jadon Sancho (14) and Ryan Fraser (14) to the award.

De Bruyne had the most assists in Europe during 2017/18. He created 16 goals for his Man City team-mates to claim the title. Leroy Sane (15), Dimitri Payet (14) and Luis Alberto (14) all narrowly missed out.

What is an assist?

An assist in football is usually credited to the player who plays the final pass or cross before a goal is scored. A player may receive recognition for creating a goal by being awarded an assist even if the pass or touch they have made to set up the goalscorer is unintentional.

There can be slight differences in how assists are recorded and allocated depending on the criteria of each official competition. For example, if a player’s pass towards a goalscorer takes a deflection on its way to the intended target, an assist is often not credited. A player who wins a penalty that is then scored does not usually get an assist either.

As well as being a recognised official statistic, assists are often important in fantasy football games and betting markets.