- Research from CIES Football Observatory has revealed the most creative stars
- The top 100 creators in world football include sixteen Premier League players
- It’s a title race between three teams… Toney could lead Arsenal to victory: It all starts
An international striker who also plays for PSG has been labeled by statisticians as the most creative player in the world.
The CIES Football Observatory has conducted its latest research in an effort to measure opportunity creation globally, by developing a special creation index.
This is calculated by combining the number of key passes leading to chances and expected assists from each player per 90 minutes, with the result then weighted by the level of the match. This means that a match in the Premier League would actually count more than a match in the Bundesliga 2 or the Championship.
Players must also have played a minimum of 630 minutes in the league for the same team during the 2023-2024 season to be eligible.
Following the survey, PSG winger Ousmane Dembele emerges as the best creator in world football, with the France international scoring a creation index of 2.36.
According to statistics experts, a PSG striker has currently been named the world’s best scorer
Ousmane Dembele joined PSG this summer and topped the CIES Football Observatory survey
Dembele moved from Barcelona to PSG this summer for £43.5million and has already provided four assists for Luis Enrique’s side, although he is yet to score.
His Paris team-mate Kylian Mbappe is the fourth most creative player in the world, with the 24-year-old languishing past Athletic Club’s Spanish winger Nico Williams and Bayern Munich star Leroy Sane, who are third and second respectively on the list . .
The perhaps surprising news is that the only Premier League player to feature in the top five creators is Aston Villa’s Moussa Diaby.
However, for those who have been keeping a close eye on Unai Emery’s side this season, the Frenchman’s arrival isn’t all that unexpected, as Diaby has already contributed three goals and three assists in what has been a stunning start to life in the Premier League has been.
Diaby is joined in the top 10 by sixth-ranked Mohamed Salah, before Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Franck Honorat, Maximiliano Nunez – who plays for Bolivian club Nacional Potosi – Inaki Williams and Magnus Wolff Eikrem make up the top 10.
Aston Villa’s Moussa Diaby is the only Premier League player to feature in the top five creators
Inter Milan’s Kieran Trippier and Federico Dimarco were the top-ranked defensive players
Inter Milan’s Federico Dimarco and Newcastle captain Kieran Trippier are the top-ranked defensive players, with both stars known for their stellar performances and assists over the past twelve months.
The research covers the top 100 most creative players in the world right now and the Premier League has the most names on the list, with 16.
Serie A is next with nine players, but a total of 33 leagues from around the world are represented.
In terms of the most promising prodigies, Florian Wirtz of Bayer Leverkusen, Johan Bakayoko of PSV and Ilya Kvasnytsya of Ukrainian side Rukh Lviv are the top creative players who are under 21 years old.