What is an Assist In Football? The Magic Behind Every Goal

Statistics play a key role in football and hold even more importance in modern football. With the growth of data and analytics tools, football fans are now well versed in numbers and technical terms used by pundits, coaches and journalists. 

One of the most used stats in any football conversation or debate is the g/a (goal/assist) stat. While every fan may be well-versed in the meaning and importance of “goals”, assists are equally as important. Here we take a look at the meaning of the term “assist” and many questions around the term, such as Is there an assist for every goal? Are assists as important as goals? What is an FPL assist? Which players are most likely to record an assist? And more. 

What is an assist in football? 

In simple words and terms, any pass that directly leads to a goal is called an assist. The metric is fairly recent in terms of addition to the game as it was first officially recorded by FIFA in 1994. In just a few decades, it has been widely accepted and adopted across the globe. 

Any pass from a player, whether intentional or not leads to a goal for his team will be counted and considered as an assist. It doesn’t matter how simple or difficult the pass was leading up to the goal, the assist is still counted as the same. 

Even if a player goes past the whole of the opposition's defense and then lobs the goalkeeper, the assist will still be counted as the final pass that was made to the goal scorer. It is also very important to note that there is no standard system or metric to record an assist. Different organisations, competitions and companies can record assists in different ways. 

Are assists as important as goals?

While there is no particular answer to this question and the individual answer may also vary depending upon different individuals. Goals and assists are both essential in the game of football, but certain players may prefer one over the other.

For example, if you ask any prolific striker such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski or Zlatan Ibrahimović, they will be more interested in being at the end of a perfect through ball and scoring the goal. While if you ask creative players such as Bruno Fernandes or Kevin De Bruyne, they will like to be the ones playing the perfect final pass. However, all players will equally respect the importance of the finish and the final pass that led to the goal. 

Can any goal have no assist?

Fans may also have noticed that goals sometimes have no recorded assist. So it is also important to note that in certain instances a goal can have no assist. Assist being awarded to the player playing the final pass depends on the organisation, competition, fantasy league rules and more.

In case a simple cross into the penalty area is tucked away, the cross will be awarded. But if the cross is slightly deflected by the opposition, then in some cases the assist will not be awarded. The same is the case with through balls and getting a touch from any opposition player.

When penalty kicks were first introduced, assists were not given to the player winning the penalty kick. But in certain cases in modern football and in certain fantasy games, winning a penalty kick counts as an assist. 

What is an FPL assist? 

Fantasy Premier League is the official fantasy game of the English Premier League. In Fantasy Premier League, if any player wins a penalty, they are awarded the assist points, if their team scores from the penalty won. However, the assist isn't awarded if the player who wins the penalty goes on to take the penalty or if the penalty kick is not converted.