- 23 hours ago
World Cup 2022 most assists: Messi finishes joint-top with four others
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 18 Dec 2022 18:29 GMT
- 6 min read
Lionel Messi led a group of five players who finished the 2022 World Cup with the most assists in the competition.
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.
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Most assists in World Cup 2022
| Player | Nation | Assists |
|---|---|---|
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 3 |
| Bruno Fernandes | Portugal | 3 |
| Harry Kane | England | 3 |
| Antoine Griezmann | France | 3 |
| Ivan Perisic | Croatia | 3 |
| Joao Felix | Portugal | 2 |
| Diogo Dalot | Portugal | 2 |
| Raphael Guerreiro | Portugal | 2 |
| Kylian Mbappe | France | 2 |
| Marcus Thuram | France | 2 |
| Ousmane Dembele | France | 2 |
| Denzel Dumfries | Netherlands | 2 |
| Vinicius Jr | Brazil | 2 |
| Phil Foden | England | 2 |
| Christian Pulisic | USA | 2 |
| Dusan Tadic | Serbia | 2 |
| Theo Hernandez | France | 2 |
| Mislav Orsic | Croatia | 2 |
| Andrija Zivkovic | Serbia | 2 |
| Jordi Alba | Spain | 2 |
| Davy Klaassen | Netherlands | 2 |
| Goncalo Ramos | Portugal | 1 |
| Alexis MacAllister | Argentina | 1 |
| Nicolas Otamendi | Argentina | 1 |
| Neymar | Brazil | 1 |
| Thiago Silva | Brazil | 1 |
| Daley Blind | Netherlands | 1 |
| Djibril Sow | Switzerland | 1 |
| Steven Berghuis | Netherlands | 1 |
| Teun Koopmeiners | Netherlands | 1 |
| Silvan Widmer | Switzerland | 1 |
| Ruben Vargas | Switzerland | 1 |
| Jerome Ngom Mbekeli | Cameroon | 1 |
| Son Heung-Min | South Korea | 1 |
| Luis Suarez | Uruguay | 1 |
| Lucas Paqueta | Brazil | 1 |
| Kalvin Phillips | England | 1 |
| Sergino Dest | USA | 1 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 1 |
| Adrien Rabiot | France | 1 |
| Joachim Andersen | Denmark | 1 |
| Lee Kang-In | South Korea | 1 |
| Kim Jin-Su | South Korea | 1 |
| Jordan Ayew | Ghana | 1 |
| Inaki Williams | Ghana | 1 |
| Vincent Aboubakar | Cameroon | 1 |
| Jean-Charles Castelletto | Cameroon | 1 |
| Dusan Tadic | Serbia | 1 |
| Mathew Leckie | Australia | 1 |
| Riley McGree | Australia | 1 |
| Angel Di Maria | Argentina | 1 |
| Nahuel Molina | Argentina | 1 |
| Enzo Fernandez | Argentina | 1 |
| Achraf Hakimi | Morocco | 1 |
| Maya Yoshida | Japan | 1 |
| Dejan Lovren | Croatia | 1 |
| Raheem Sterling | England | 1 |
| Callum Wilson | England | 1 |
| Jude Bellingham | England | 1 |
| Ali Gholizadeh | Iran | 1 |
| Harry Maguire | England | 1 |
| Junya Ito | Japan | 1 |
| Kaoru Mitoma | Japan | 1 |
| Frenkie de Jong | Netherlands | 1 |
| Angelo Preciado | Ecuador | 1 |
| Felix Torres | Ecuador | 1 |
| Luke Shaw | England | 1 |
| Feras Albrikan | Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Hattan Bahebri | Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Ko Itakura | Japan | 1 |
| Alvaro Morata | Spain | 1 |
| Cesar Azpilicueta | Spain | 1 |
| Dani Olmo | Spain | 1 |
| Rodrygo | Brazil | 1 |
| Xherdan Shaqiri | Switzerland | 1 |
| Mehdi Taremi | Iran | 1 |
| Ismail Jakobs | Senegal | 1 |
| Illiman Ndiaye | Senegal | 1 |
| Ismaeel Mohammed | Qatar | 1 |
| Toby Alderweireld | Belgium | 1 |
| Yeltsin Tejeda | Costa Rica | 1 |
| Jamal Musiala | Germany | 1 |
| David Raum | Germany | 1 |
| Serge Gnabry | Germany | 1 |
| Niclas Fullkrug | Germany | 1 |
| Josip Juranovic | Croatia | 1 |
| Hakim Ziyech | Morocco | 1 |
| Abdelhamid Sabiri | Morocco | 1 |
| Tajon Buchanan | Canada | 1 |
| Aissa Laidouni | Tunisia | 1 |
| Yahya Attia Allah | Morocco | 1 |
| Cesar Montes | Mexico | 1 |
| Marko Livaja | Croatia | 1 |
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.
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.
