Published on 6/15/2026
The impact in the World Cup is not limited to scoring goals only, but also extends to playmaking and decisive passes that create decisive moments. In this context, the two Argentine football legends share the record for the largest number of assists in the history of the World Cup.
Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona top the list of players with the most goals in World Cup history, with 8 assists each since the 1966 edition.
Messi achieved this number during a career that spanned five editions of the World Cup, during which he played 26 matches, where he particularly stood out in the 2022 edition when he led Argentina towards winning the third title in its history.
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As for Maradona, he reached the same level during his participation in four editions of the World Cup, and he played 21 matches. He was the most prominent leader in crowning Argentina with the 1986 title, where he left his mark as one of the greatest players in the history of the tournament.
Behind the Argentine duo are a number of the most prominent stars in world football who have scored important numbers in creating goals, as German Pierre Littbarski and Polish Gregorz Lato each have 7 assists.
In the next position, we find a group of big names who recorded 6 assists, including the Englishman David Beckham and the Brazilian Pele, in addition to a number of German stars such as Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Uwe Seeler, as well as the Italian Francesco Totti.
The list also includes players with 5 assists, such as Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, Croatian Ivan Perišić, and Brazilian Zico, in addition to other prominent names from Germany, Argentina and Colombia.
This classification confirms that the players’ imprint on the World Cup is not measured by goals only, but also by the ability to make plays and lead the team to victory, as Messi and Maradona remain at the top of this creative aspect of the tournament’s history.
