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The year 2018 was a memorable one for many reasons and it was also the year in which the Ronaldo-Messi duopoly for the Ballon d’Or was ended by Luka Modric. Although Modric won the Ballon d’Or, the year will be remembered for some outstanding performances by forwards from across Europe’s Top 5 leagues.
For instance, Mohamed Salah broke the record for most goals in a 38-game Premier League season by scoring 32 goals in the 2017/18 season and Kylian Mbappe quickly went from promising youngster to one of the best players in the world.
While the likes of Mbappe, Salah and Griezmann set new personal heights, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo continued their domination of the goalscoring charts and even the assists charts.
So, at the end of the year 2018, take a look at the Top 5 players from Europe’s Top 5 leagues with the most number of combined goals and assists in all competitions.
Note - All statistics obtained from Transfermarkt.com
#5. Antoine Griezmann - 51
In 2016, Antoine Greizmann was at the wrong end in two major cup finals. He lost the UEFA Champions League final to Real Madrid and the UEFA Euro final to Portugal in France. In 2018, justice was served as he won his first major trophy with Atletico Madrid by lifting the Europa League and more importantly, he won the FIFA World Cup.
The Frenchman ended the year with 33 goals and 18 assists for Atletico Madrid in 52 games across all competitions which is the fifth highest tally in Europe’s Top 5 leagues beating Robert Lewandowski in sixth by a margin of three.
His goals and assists tally are individually the sixth and eighth highest in Europe’s Top 5 leagues for 2018.
This season, the 27-year-old has only seven league goals to his name which is the ninth highest in La Liga and eight less than top scorer Leo Messi. He also has six assists in the La Liga which is the second highest in the league behind Messi again.
#4. Mohamed Salah - 55
If Liverpool won the UEFA Champions League in 2018, then Mohamed Salah may have won the Ballon d’Or. Even though he didn’t win any honours with Liverpool, Salah ended the year with a plethora of individual awards.
The Egyptian won the Premier League Golden boot at the end of a record-breaking season and the Puskas award. He was also named the PFA Players’ Player of the year, the PFA Fans’ Player of the Year, FWA Footballer of the Year, the BBC African Footballer of the Year and the Premier League Player of the Season.
Salah ended the year with 37 goals and 18 assists to his name in only 49 games. His assists and goals tally individually are the seventh and fourth highest in the year 2018.
He is currently the joint leading top scorer in the Premier League this season with 13 goals in 20 games and also the joint third highest assist provider in the league with seven to his name and only two less than the top assist provider Eden Hazard.
#3. Luis Suarez - 56
There is often a lot of discussion on social media on replacing Luis Suarez at Barcelona. There are arguments that he doesn’t score enough or that he’s ageing. However, his numbers dispel any such claims.
The Uruguayan scored 32 goals in 49 games across all competitions in 2018 which is the seventh highest tally in Europe’s Top 5 leagues and more than the number of goals scored by the likes of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. He also has 24 assists to his name this year which is the second highest in Europe’s Top 5 leagues and only two fewer than Dimitri Payet’s tally of 26.
Suarez’s contributions helped Barcelona win the La Liga, Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España in 2018.
He currently has eleven league goals to his name this season which is the second highest in Spain’s top tier behind only his teammate Leo Messi.
#2. Cristiano Ronaldo - 57
The year 2018 was a big year in Cristiano Ronaldo’s career. He won the fifth UEFA Champions League title of his career, scored four goals at the FIFA World Cup which included a sensational record-breaking hat-trick against Spain, completed a shock transfer to Juventus and he’s now breaking records in Italy.
Ronaldo has 43 goals and 14 assists to his name in 2018 in only 46 games across all competitions. His goals tally is the second highest among all players in Europe’s Top 5 leagues but his assists tally is only the 16th highest for the year.
The Portuguese scored 28 of his goals in 2018 for Real Madrid in only 22 games and the remaining 15 goals in 24 games for his new club. He’s presently the leading goalscorer in Serie A with 14 goals to his name and also the third highest assist provider.
#1. Lionel Messi - 70
Before we discuss Leo Messi’s numbers from 2018 and the margin with which he tops this chart, let’s remember that he was voted the 5th best player in the world at the 2018 Ballon d’Or.
Messi topped the goalscoring charts in 2018 with 47 goals in 48 games across all competitions. He also racked up 23 assists in 2018 which is the third highest in Europe’s Top 5 leagues behind Dimitri Payet and Luis Suarez.
The Argentine’s combined goals and assists tally for 2018 is 70 and he leads his nearest competitor by 13. To put things into perspective, the next nine players are split by 17 goals and assists.
The 31-year-old had the most goals, assists, chances created and dribbles completed in La Liga last season and this season is no different. He has four goals and four assists more than his nearest competitor in the league and no player has more goals or assists than him this season in Europe’s Top 5 leagues.
