Europe's Top 5 Leagues: 5 Players with the most number of direct goal involvements in 2018 so far

#1 Lionel Messi (FC Barcelona and Argentina) - 47 goals and 23 assists (48 apps)

Messi will end 2018 at the top of the goal-scoring and the involvement in goals chart. Another underrated year for the Argentine.

How good is he? Who is the best player in the world? The best in the world, bar none. These are the lines through which commentators try to describe the diminutive Argentine. But, superlatives won't do justice to his ability. We cannot describe what Lionel Messi actually does on the pitch.

It is uncanny to outscore goal-poachers and also stay among the top assist makers. Luis Suarez and Dimitri Payet are the only two players with more assists than Messi in 2018.

Despite all of this, Messi's heat map shows clearly that he wanders in the central midfield area for most of the time. When Arthur is not present on the pitch, he always has to drop deep to collect the ball. And he does it while scoring.

Cristiano Ronaldo had the edge in terms of goal ratio before the start of the new season. But come now, Messi has the best goal ratio in Europe for the calendar year 2018 (0.97).

Messi scored 47 goals and assisted 23 in 2018. It is still a myth as to why he did not win the Ballon d'Or only due to the fact that he had a poor World Cup.

The Argentine has scored some brilliant goals this season including the hat-trick on matchday 1 of the UEFA Champions League and the brace at Wembley. He assisted 23 times, 2 of them at the World Cup against France.

Let us hope that this man gives us another year of magical performances. In terms of scoring and assisting, Lionel Messi is clear at the top in Europe's top 5 leagues by a whopping margin of 14 goals.