Most goal involvements in the century: Messi stands out, van Persie and Kuyt in top 20

On the occasion of Transfermarkt’s 20th anniversary, we had a look at the players who have been directly involved in most goals in the current millennium. The ranking is led by the defining player of this era: Lionel Messi. Since his professional debut in October 2004 and until June June 30, 2020, the FC Barcelona star has been involved in an incredible 1,014 goals in “only” 861 matches – an unrivalled rate. All competitive matches, including those for the national team, will be taken as a benchmark.

The Argentinian thus only narrowly beats his eternal rival Cristiano Ronaldo – but, under contract with Juventus, the Portuguese needed 1,004 games for his 985 goal contributions. So, while Messi has a rate of 1.18 goals and assists per game, Ronaldo averages 0.98, which is still an outstanding number without a doubt.

In Miroslav Klose and Thomas Müller, two Germans make the top 20. The Bayern striker and his future assistant coach have 475 and 485 goal involvements respectively and sit close together in 16th (Müller) and 14th (Klose). It is remarkable that Müller almost has as many goals (251) as assists (221). This season in particular, the 2014 World Cup winner proved his creativity: No player in the top 15 leagues assisted as many goals as Müller (25). Among the player with the most goal contributions in the current millennium, only Messi, Ronaldo and Luis Suárez managed to provide more than 200 assists.

The Netherlands have the most players in the top 25: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Dirk Kuyt, Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie, four former Dutch national team forwards made it into the top 25, with only Suárez (1.001) and Neymar (0.99), along with Messi and Ronaldo, averaging around 1.0 goal contributions per game.

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