Most commonly, an assist is credited to a player for
passing or
crossing 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 a
penalty kick or a
free kick for another player to convert, A goal may be unassisted, or have one assist; some systems allow for two assists. 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 to
Opta, "in the event of an
own 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." According to Opta, an assist is
not awarded in the following cases: • Goals scored directly from
penalty kicks,
direct free kicks, or
corner-kicks •
Own goals • Deflected or rebounded balls from opponents that affected the ball's delivery to the goal scorer. • Balls rebounded off the post. Opta attest that this strict definition makes assist statistics more accurate and fair in analyzing players' sports performance.
FIFA World Cup FIFA's Technical Study Group is responsible for awarding assist points at the
FIFA World Cup. In the Technical Study Group's report on the
1986 World Cup, the authors calculated for the first time unofficial statistics for assists, developing the following criteria: • 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. • After goals scored on penalty or by a
directly converted free-kick the fouled player received a point. • In case that the goalscorer had laid on the goal for himself (
dribble, solo run), no assists were awarded. • No assists were awarded, either, if the goalscorer
took advantage of a missed pass by an opponent. The
1990 World Cup technical report adopted similar criteria, but changed the free-kick/penalty criterion: • 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).
Planet World Cup has calculated some retrospective data on assists back to the
1966 World Cup, though the 1986 data differs from that of FIFA. FIFA started officially keeping track of assists in
World Cup tournaments at the
1994 edition. This was popularly ascribed to the popularity of detailed
sports statistics among fans. In the event, both
Hristo Stoichkov and
Oleg Salenko tied with 19 points, from 6 goals and 1 assist. Sports newspaper ''
L'Équipe'' had unofficially tracked assists for some years prior to then. The league's
Commission des Compétitions includes blocked shots as a subset of "decisive passes".
Spain For the
1998–99 La Liga season, SDI sold its Gecasport database to Spanish media, in which were described as "passes which lead immediately to a shot and goal".
Ukraine 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). The calculation of assist has certain problems to establish what is the "last pass" which led to a scored goal. Since the
2006–07 season, assists have been factored into the Actim Index of Premier League player performance. 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. The
Premier League Playmaker of the Season award was introduced in the
2017–18 Premier League for the player with most assists.
United States The original
North American Soccer League kept assist statistics from its foundation in 1968, as its forebears the
United Soccer Association and
National Professional Soccer League had done the previous year. Analogous statistics were already being kept
in basketball and
in ice hockey, both established North American sports.
Major League Soccer formerly awarded the
MLS Golden Boot based on 2 points per goal scored and one per assist. The
NCAA makes regulations for statistics, including assists, in
college soccer in the U.S. Two players may be credited with assists if the second did not have to beat a defender before passing to the scorer. No assist is awarded for winning a penalty. If a goal is scored after a save, block, or rebound from the goal frame, the first shooter gets an assist. ==Statistics==