European Assists King 2025/26: Yamal and Olise battling for the lead

Carlo Garganese

• 9 Dec 2025 12:25 GMT
• 14 min read

Feature

An intriguing race to record the most assists in Europe for the 2025/26 football season is just getting under way, with Mohamed Salah coming into this 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.

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 these assist standings 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.

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.

READ MORE: Premier League Assists Standings

But the Belgium international is now 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. Bruno Fernandes, Jack Grealish and Martin Odegaard could be other key threats from the Premier League.

READ MORE: Premier League 2025/26 Top Scorers

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.

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.

READ MORE: European Golden Shoe 2025/26 Standings

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?

An entertaining race to record the most assists in Europe is well underway for the 2025/26 football season and some of the world's leading creative players are battling it out in the continental assist standings.

Incredibly, as we neared the end of November, there were six players in a tie for first place.

At that stage, Lamine Yamal, Marcus Rashford, Vitinha, Michael Olise, Luis Milla, and Fares Chaibi were all joint-leaders with six assists each.

Since then, Olise and Yamal have edged clear of the chasing pack, with the Bayern Munich winger one assist clear of his Barcelona rival.

There are also a host of other new names joining the chasing pack within two or three assists of the leader, including in-form trio Luis Diaz, Bruno Fernandes and Federico Dimarco, meaning much could change over the coming weeks.

Everton winger Jack Grealish was the surprise sole early leader of the continental creative standings, although a host of big names including Mason Greenwood, Joao Pedro and Harry Kane were in the group of players trying to chase him down.

There was a rise for Real Madrid stars Vinicius Junior and Federico Valverde in the standings when they both created goals in Los Blancos' big 4-1 away win over Levante.

As players started to catch Grealish, one of the co-leaders until early October as part of a packed leaderboard was Andrej Ilic of Union Berlin.

Top spot was then jointly held by Getafe player Milla and Chaibi of Eintracht Frankfurt, as the lead continued to change.

But Milla moved on to six assists on October 31 and claimed a narrow outright lead going into November, with fellow La Liga star, Real Madrid playmaker Arda Guler, among the players close behind.

However, two major stars joined Milla in a share of first place in the final weekend of club action before the November international break.

Marcus Rashford has also been on a charge this season and the Barcelona forward has registered six LaLiga assists.

He had previously been sitting prominently in the chasing pack, but surged into a share of the lead with two goals created in Barca's thrilling 4-2 away win at Celta Vigo, setting up two of the strikes netted by hat-trick scorer Robert Lewandowski.

Paris Saint-Germain star Vitinha is the other player who moved on to six assists, with his total helped by setting up two goals in the dramatic 3-2 Ligue 1 win at Lyon on November 9.

But the group got even bigger when club football returned.

Yamal superbly set up two goals as Barca thrashed Athletic Bilbao 4-0 on their return to Camp Nou.

Olise surged into contention with a staggering individual performance as Bayern came from two goals down to thrash Freiburg 6-2. The France winger scored two goals and assisted three more in a remarkable performance on November 22.

And Chaibi created a goal in Frankfurt's thrilling 4-3 win over Cologne to make it six co-leaders.

That situation changed when Olise recorded two assists as part of Bayern's thumping 5-0 away win over Stuttgart on December 6, including setting up the goal that sealed a hat-trick for substitute Kane.

And Yamal is not far behind him after his impressive display against Alaves on November 29, scoring once as well as setting up another for Dani Olmo as part of a 3-1 Barca win.

Premier League, LaLiga and Ligue 1 action arrived first this season, with those three competitions beginning on Friday August 15.

There was one week longer to wait before Serie A and the Bundesliga started, but those competitions have also got started, with plenty of drama in the early matchdays.

Bayern Munich made a fast start in Germany while all eyes were on how much of an impact De Bruyne would be able to make with Napoli, and he then scored at Sassuolo.

This season’s European Assist King standings remain hugely competitive, with just two assists separating a huge group of players who have between six and eight goals created so far.

Many of the expected key contenders are yet to register their first assists and others have only just played a handful of matches due to injuries, so the 2025/26 creative charts will continue to take shape as more matchdays of the new campaign are played, with significant changes still expected over upcoming weeks.

One of those contenders yet to make a huge impact is Saka, even though Arsenal have made a fine start, including opening their Premier League campaign away to Man Utd in a 1-0 win before defeating Leeds 5-0 in their second fixture.

Saka scored in the latter match but missed the games with Liverpool and Nottingham Forest due to injury before returning as a substitute against Man City. The England winger made a flying start last season and will have been hoping to impress again in this campaign to make up for missing a lot of time to injury in 2024/25, but he did not register an assist in his first 10 league outings before finally getting off the mark away to Chelsea.

But there are already some big names among the early assist leaders including Barcelona star Yamal and new Bayern Munich attacker Diaz.

Diaz produced five goals and four assists in his first six Bundesliga matches this season, making an electric start to the campaign.

Prior to his display against Athletic, Yamal was also up to four assists, having a goal created coming in Barca's last-gasp 2-1 win over Girona on October 18.

Also near the top of the charts early in the season was Diaz's team-mate Kane, who set up two goals in Bayern's 3-2 victory away at Augsburg on August 30 and then had another goal created, as well as scoring twice, in the 5-0 home win over Hamburg on September 13.

As for Grealish, Everton played their first match at Hill Dickinson Stadium against Brighton on August 24, Grealish set up both goals in a 2-0 victory for his new club. It meant he had produced as many Premier League assists in one match as he had recorded across the two previous top-flight seasons combined for former club Manchester City.

He then followed up that fine performance with another two assists as Everton defeated Wolves 3-2 at Molineux, with Grealish becoming the first player in the club's history to create multiple goals in consecutive EPL appearances.

Grealish therefore hit the international break in fine form, and he sat one assist clear of Lille's Felix Correia in the early standings at that stage.

After the first two matchdays following the international break had come to a close, Grealish had been joined at the top of the standings by Milla and Ilic.

Milla recorded multiple assists in two separate matches so far this season, getting a creative double against both Sevilla and Real Oviedo as his team impressed in the early stages of the campaign.

Ilic, meanwhile, remarkably had three assists in one game as Union Berlin won a thrilling clash away against Eintracht Frankfurt 4-3 on September 21.

Oliver Burke scored a hat-trick for the visitors, with every one of his goals set up by Ilic.

Milla moved clear of the pack with his fifth assist of the season on October 3, as Getafe were beaten 2-1 by Osasuna.

But he did not remain the sole leader for the full month, as Chaibi ended October with assists in consecutive Bundesliga matches against Freiburg and St Pauli to join Milla on five goals created.

That was until Milla responded by creating another goal in Getafe's 2-1 win over Girona, meaning he had reached six assists from just 11 top-flight games.

Then Rashford and Vitinha joined him at the top, before the following weekend Chaibi returned to the summit as Yamal and Olise made their respective charges up the standings to make it a six-way tie for the lead.

Now Olise and Yamal are attempting to separate themselves from a huge group near the summit, all setting up an intriguing few weeks of packed club action before the festive period with the creative standings now beginning to take shape.

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).

READ MORE: Manchester United 2025/26 Top Scorers

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 in what proved to be a vintage year for football's leading creative players.

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.