5 players with most assists across Europe's top 5 leagues 

#1 Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City) - 15 Assists

Kevin de Bruyne is the assist king of the Premier League

Lionel Messi is unarguably the best playmaker in the world but coming in at a very close second is Kevin de Bruyne.

The Belgian international has been nothing short of exceptional in the last few years and having discarded him at a young age, Chelsea are still counting the losses of missing out on his services.

De Bruyne makes the most difficult of passes look easy, while his vision and range of passing is second to none and amid a team of criminally underperforming teammates, the 28-year-old is the one Manchester City player who can hold his head high as having maintained his high standards this season.

If anything, a case can be made to state that the former Wolfsburg man is playing the best football of his career and he is the hands-on favorite to be named PFA Player of the Year come to the end of the campaign.

So far, he leads the assists charts in the Premier League with 15 assists from 23 matches - making him the first player in history to record at least 15 assists in three different Premier League campaigns - and his importance is highlighted by the fact that he is the only outfield player exempt from Pep Guardiola's notorious rotation policy.

Kevin de Bruyne needs just six more assists to break Thierry Henry's record of 20 assists in a single season and he has 15 more matches to achieve this, while with seven goals, he is also on course to shatter his personal record of 10 league goals scored in a campaign.