Assist (association football)

In association football, an assist is a contribution leading to the scoring of a goal, where the contribution is made by someone on the scoring team other than the scorer. Statistics for assists made by players may be kept officially by the organisers of a competition, or unofficially by, for example, journalists or organisers of fantasy football competitions. Recording assists is not part of the official Laws of the Game and the criteria for an assist to be awarded may vary. Record of assists was virtually not kept at all until the end of the 20th century, although reports of matches commonly described a player as having "made" one or more goals. Since the 1990s, some leagues have kept official record of assists and based awards on them.

The separate player statistics "goals [scored]" and "assists" may be aggregated to a statistic called "[goal] contributions" or "[goal] involvements" (analogous to what is called a point in ice hockey).