World Cup 2022 most assists: Messi finishes joint-top with four others

Carlo Garganese
Carlo Garganese
  • Updated: 18 Dec 2022 18:29 GMT
  • 6 min read
Lionel Messi after his penalty for Argentina against Croatia.
© ProShots

Lionel Messi led a group of five players who finished the 2022 World Cup with the most assists in the competition.

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Argentina superstar Messi, Portugal's Bruno Fernandes, England's Harry Kane, France's Antoine Griezmann and Croatia's Ivan Perisic all finished the tournament with three assists each.

Neither Messi nor Griezmann added to their totals during Sunday's thrilling World Cup final, which Argentina won 4-2 on penalties after a 3-3 draw after extra time.

Perisic did grab an assist to move onto three assists during Croatia's 2-1 win over Morocco in the third-fourth playoff on Saturday.

Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, Theo Hernandez and Marcus Thuram (who made a goal in the final) of France all finished on two assists.

World Cup 2022 top scorers

World Cup 2022: Teams, fixtures, results, favourites

World Cup all-time top scorers

Ronaldo vs Messi at the World Cup: How their stats, goals, assists and performances compare

Most assists in World Cup 2022

PlayerNationAssists
Lionel MessiArgentina3
Bruno FernandesPortugal3
Harry KaneEngland3
Antoine GriezmannFrance3
Ivan PerisicCroatia3
Joao FelixPortugal2
Diogo DalotPortugal2
Raphael GuerreiroPortugal2
Kylian MbappeFrance2
Marcus ThuramFrance2
Ousmane DembeleFrance2
Denzel DumfriesNetherlands2
Vinicius JrBrazil2
Phil FodenEngland2
Christian PulisicUSA2
Dusan TadicSerbia2
Theo HernandezFrance2
Mislav OrsicCroatia2
Andrija ZivkovicSerbia2
Jordi AlbaSpain2
Davy KlaassenNetherlands2
Goncalo RamosPortugal1
Alexis MacAllisterArgentina1
Nicolas OtamendiArgentina1
NeymarBrazil1
Thiago SilvaBrazil1
Daley BlindNetherlands1
Djibril SowSwitzerland1
Steven BerghuisNetherlands1
Teun KoopmeinersNetherlands1
Silvan WidmerSwitzerland1
Ruben VargasSwitzerland1
Jerome Ngom MbekeliCameroon1
Son Heung-MinSouth Korea1
Luis SuarezUruguay1
Lucas PaquetaBrazil1
Kalvin PhillipsEngland1
Sergino DestUSA1
Robert LewandowskiPoland1
Adrien RabiotFrance1
Joachim AndersenDenmark1
Lee Kang-InSouth Korea1
Kim Jin-SuSouth Korea1
Jordan AyewGhana1
Inaki WilliamsGhana1
Vincent AboubakarCameroon1
Jean-Charles CastellettoCameroon1
Dusan TadicSerbia1
Mathew LeckieAustralia1
Riley McGreeAustralia1
Angel Di MariaArgentina1
Nahuel MolinaArgentina1
Enzo FernandezArgentina1
Achraf HakimiMorocco1
Maya YoshidaJapan1
Dejan LovrenCroatia1
Raheem SterlingEngland1
Callum WilsonEngland1
Jude BellinghamEngland1
Ali GholizadehIran1
Harry MaguireEngland1
Junya ItoJapan1
Kaoru MitomaJapan1
Frenkie de JongNetherlands1
Angelo PreciadoEcuador1
Felix TorresEcuador1
Luke ShawEngland1
Feras AlbrikanSaudi Arabia1
Hattan BahebriSaudi Arabia1
Ko ItakuraJapan1
Alvaro MorataSpain1
Cesar AzpilicuetaSpain1
Dani OlmoSpain1
RodrygoBrazil1
Xherdan ShaqiriSwitzerland1
Mehdi TaremiIran1
Ismail JakobsSenegal1
Illiman NdiayeSenegal1
Ismaeel MohammedQatar1
Toby AlderweireldBelgium1
Yeltsin TejedaCosta Rica1
Jamal MusialaGermany1
David RaumGermany1
Serge GnabryGermany1
Niclas FullkrugGermany1
Josip JuranovicCroatia1
Hakim ZiyechMorocco1
Abdelhamid SabiriMorocco1
Tajon BuchananCanada1
Aissa LaidouniTunisia1
Yahya Attia AllahMorocco1
Cesar MontesMexico1
Marko LivajaCroatia1

Cristiano Ronaldo delivered no assists in the 2022 World Cup before Portugal went out.

For everyone who plays World Cup Fantasy Football, assists are hugely important in scoring points.

In the 2018 World Cup, an incredible 16 players were tied for most assists after registering two each. Those players were: Lionel Messi, Ever Banega, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Thomas Meunier, Youri Tielemans, Philippe Coutinho, Juan Fernando Quintero, James Rodriguez, Antoine Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez, Artem Dzyuba, Aleksandr Golovin, Viktor Claesson, Wahbi Khazri, and Carlos Sanchez.

Messi’s two assists in the 2018 tournament moved him to five assists in World Cup history. He now has eight after 2022, the same number as Diego Maradona, who hold the joint-record for the most assists in the World Cup with eight.

Pierre Littbarski and Grzegorz Lato are tied for the title of the joint-second highest assist-maker in World Cup history with seven. David Beckham, Francesco Totti and Pele are among the players with six assists in the World Cup.

Lionel Messi for Argentina
© ProShots - Lionel Messi for Argentina

Messi and De Bruyne both topped the standings during the 2018 Russia World Cup, but the Belgian had a disappointing campaign in 2022, with his side surprisingly crashing out at the group stage.

World Cup Golden Boot tiebreak

The World Cup Golden Boot is awarded to the player with the most goals at Qatar 2022.

But if two players end the World Cup with the same number of goals, then the player who has the most number of assists will win the Golden Boot.

If the players have the same number of goals and assists, then the next tiebreaker is minutes per goal.

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