Contribution by a player which helps to score a goal
Inassociation football, anassist is a contribution leading to thescoring of a goal, where the contribution is made by someone on the scoring team other than the scorer. Statistics for assists made by players may be kept officially by the organisers of a competition, or unofficially by, for example, journalists or organisers offantasy football competitions. Recording assists is not part of the officialLaws of the Game and the criteria for an assist to be awarded may vary. Record of assists was virtually not kept at all until the end of the 20th century, although reports of matches commonly described a player as having "made" one or more goals. Since the 1990s, some leagues have kept official record of assists and based awards on them.
The separate player statistics "goals [scored]" and "assists" may be aggregated to a statistic called "[goal]contributions" or "[goal]involvements" (analogous to what is called apoint inice hockey).
Most commonly, an assist is credited to a player forpassing orcrossing the ball to the scorer. It may also be awarded to a player whose shot rebounds (off a defender,goalkeeper or goalpost) to a teammate who scores. Some systems may credit an assist to a player who wins apenalty kick or afree kick for another player to convert,[1][2] or to an attacking player for contributing to anown goal.[3] A goal may be unassisted, or have one assist; some systems allow for two assists.[1][4]
Opta, a Britishsports analytics company and the official provider ofPremier League statistics,[5][6] defines an assist as "The final touch from a teammate, which leads to the recipient of the ball scoring a goal".Opta requires that if the assist is deflected by an opposition player, it must be deemed as travelling to the goalscorer irrespective of the deflection. Also according toOpta, "in the event of anown goal,direct free kick goal and direct corner goal, an assist will not be awarded. This same rule applies to penalties unless the penalty taker chooses to pass the ball for another player to score."[7]
According to Opta, an assist isnot awarded in the following cases:
FIFA's Technical Study Group is responsible for awarding assist points at theFIFA World Cup.[8] In the Technical Study Group's report on the1986 World Cup, the authors calculated for the first time unofficial statistics for assists, developing the following criteria:[1]
An assist was awarded to the player who had given the last pass to the goalscorer.
In addition, the last but two holder of the ball could get an assist provided that his action had decisive importance for the goal.
After goals from rebounds those players were awarded an assist who had shot on target.
The1990 World Cup technical report adopted similar criteria, but changed the free-kick/penalty criterion:[2]
Where goals resulting from penalties are concerned, the player who is fouled in the area receives an assist point (unless, that is, the player who is fouled subsequently executes the penalty himself).[citation needed]
Planet World Cup has calculated some retrospective data on assists back to the1966 World Cup,[9] though the 1986 data differs from that of FIFA.[1][10]
The French league,Ligue 1, awards theTrophée de Meilleur Passeur ("best passer trophy") to the player with most "decisive passes" in a season, starting in the2007–08 season.[13] Sports newspaperL'Équipe had unofficially tracked assists for some years prior to then.[14] The league'sCommission des Compétitions includes blocked shots as a subset of "decisive passes".[15][16] In2012–13,Mathieu Valbuena andDimitri Payet finished with 12 assists, Valbuena winning the trophy by having fewer blocked shots (3 against 5) among his total.[16]
For the1998–99 La Liga season, SDI sold its Gecasport database to Spanish media, in whichasistencias de gol were described as "passes which lead immediately to a shot and goal".[17]
In Ukraine, a traceable documentation of assists calculation started out by Ukrainian newspaper "Komanda" during the 2004–05 season of the Ukrainian Higher League (Vyshcha Liha).[18] The calculation of assist has certain problems to establish what is the "last pass" which led to a scored goal.[18] Different institutions have own perception of it. Some specialists consider that an assist has to be a deliberate action meaning that it does not include the situation when a ball randomly rebounded to a scoring striker.
In the United Kingdom, official game statistics, including assists, for thePremier League, theScottish Premiership, and theEnglish Football League are provided by PA Sport under the Actim brand.[19] Since the2006–07 season, assists have been factored into the Actim Index of Premier League player performance.[20] The assist statistics provided by fantasy football competitions may differ from the Actim data; some uniformly credit an assist to whichever teammate last touched the ball before the scorer, regardless of other circumstances of the play.[21] ThePremier League Playmaker of the Season award was introduced in the2017–18 Premier League for the player with most assists.[22]
TheNCAA makes regulations for statistics, including assists, incollege soccer in the U.S.[25] Two players may be credited with assists if the second did not have to beat a defender before passing to the scorer.[4] No assist is awarded for winning a penalty.[26] If a goal is scored after a save, block, or rebound from the goal frame, the first shooter gets an assist.[27]
These totals are the official records recognised by the relevant governing body. Independent statistics providers may have different data, either through crediting different players for a given goal, or through having begun recording assists earlier or later than the official statistics provider. Expected assists (xA) is aperformance metric that measures the likelihood that a completed pass becomes an assist, factoring in distance and the type of pass.[28]
ArgentineLionel Messi is the all time record assist maker with a total of 404 official assists so far.[29][30]
Players with most assists in all competitions (all-time)
^abcBryan, Rebecca (11 July 1994). "Football by the numbers". Los Angeles:Agence France Presse.the assist has gained enough ground to earn a place in the calculations for the Golden Boot award, which in every previous World Cup has been awarded solely on the basis of goals scored. Under the formula, players get three points for a goal, and one point for an assist. "We made a two-point difference because we do not want someone who did not score winning the award," a FIFA official said.
^ab"Romario is voted the top player of World Cup '94 and winner of the FIFA/adidas Golden Ball award; Salenko and Stoichkov tie as leading scorers for World Cup USA '94".Business Wire. 17 July 1994.[FIFA] has announced Oleg Salenko (Russia) and Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) as [...] winners of the prestigious adidas Golden Shoe award [...] who made six goals and one assist each. Kennet Andersson (Sweden) with 5 goals and 3 assists, will receive a Bronze replica of the Predator [...] Throughout World Cup '94, three points were awarded for each goal scored and one point for each assist leading to a goal, with a maximum of two assists per goal. Assists are only taken into account if two or more players scored the same number of goals.
^"Thauvin n'oublie pas de passer" (in French). LFP.fr. 5 February 2020. Archived fromthe original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved5 June 2020.la création du classement officiel des passeurs en 2007/08
^"Assists".Premier League Player Stats. Premier League. Archived fromthe original on 24 June 2017. Retrieved5 June 2020.;"Ryan Giggs".Premier League Players. Premier League.Archived from the original on 5 June 2020. Retrieved5 June 2020.
