The 40 Players With The Most Assists In The 21st Century Named

The 40 players with the most assists in the 21st century have been named, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Dusan Tadic featuring in the top 10 list.

Earlier this year, Ronaldo became football's all-time top goalscorer after scoring a hat-trick for Manchester United in their 3-2 win against Spurs, breaking Josef Bican's previous record of 805 goals.

For many, the former Real Madrid and Juventus forward will go down as the greatest goalscorer in the history of the game, but what about his often understated playmaking ability?

Image credit: Alamy

It may surprise a few readers to see Ronaldo's name so high up in the assist charts.

The 37-year-old, who has made 1,124 apearances in his trophy-laden career, has recorded 273 assists in total, meaning he ranks in second place on the 'best passers of the 21st century' list by the guys over at PopFoot.

Here is the 40 players with the most assists in the 21st century:

40. Dimitri Payet – 153 assists

39. Juan Roman Riquelme – 156 assists

38. Francesco Totti – 158 assists

37. Alexis Sanchez – 162 assists

36. Kaka – 162 assists

35. Mbark Boussoufa – 162 assists

34. Robinho – 163 assists

33. Robert Lewandowski – 165 assists

32. Eden Hazard – 165 assists

31. Arjen Robben – 165 assists

30. Wesley Sneijder – 165 assists

Image credit: Alamy

29. Ronaldinho – 165 assists

28. Mathieu Valbuena – 166 assists

27. Ricardo Quaresma – 171 assists

26. Christian Eriksen – 171 assists

25. Andres Iniesta – 172 assists

24. Frank Lampard – 173 assists

23. David Beckham – 174 assists

22. Wayne Rooney – 175 assists

21. Steven Gerrard – 175 assists

Image credit: PopFoot/Twitter

20. Thierry Henry – 185 assists

19. Ryan Giggs – 186 assists

18. Hulk – 189 assists

17. Franck Ribery – 196 assists

16. Karim Benzema – 202 assists

15. Dani Alves – 203 assists

14. David Silva – 203 assists

13. Xavi Hernandez – 207 assists

12. Dries Mertens – 212 assists

11. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 221 assists

10. Kevin De Bruyne – 222 assists

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9. Cesc Fabregas – 230 assists

8. Luis Suarez – 232 assists

7. Thomas Muller – 232 assists

6. Neymar – 233 assists

5. Dusan Tadic – 236 assists

4. Mesut Ozil – 240 assists

3. Angel Di Maria – 252 assists

2. Cristiano Ronaldo – 273 assists

1. Lionel Messi – 331 assists

Image credit: PopFoot/Twitter

So there we have it. Seven-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi has notched a quite remarkable 331 assists during spells at Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain – a record that will likely go untouched for some time.

In terms of assists-per-game for club and country, Manchester City and Belgium midfielder Kevin de Bruyne comes out on top with an average of 0.36 per 90 minutes.

Neymar and Mesut Ozil are also up there when it comes to assists-per-game, notching an average of 0.35, while that man Messi picks up 0.34 per match.

Image credit: Alamy

Thoughts on the top 40 list? Any surprises in there?

Let us know in the comments.

Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Karim Benzema, Mesut Ozil, Neymar, Zlatan Ibrahimovic

Jack Kenmare

Senior Journalist at SPORTbible with a passion for long-form journalism. Almost 10 years’ experience across online and print.

@jackkenmare_