Check out the all-time honour roll for Ligue 1 Uber Eats' top assist providers in the 21st century. Lionel Messi may have made a splash in the last two seasons but this list is dominated by Olympique de Marseille's Dimitri Payet.
Currently at Olympique de Marseille, where he has just completed his ninth season, Dimitri Payet (36) is the top assist provider in Ligue 1 Uber Eats in the 21st century - and the only player to have passed the symbolic mark of 100 assists (106). The No.10 has clocked 67 assists with OM, 18 with ASSE, as many with LOSC and three in his debut turn with FC Nantes.
In all, 54 players have scored from a Payet assist, from Mamadou Diallo in December 2006 (vs TFC) to Jordan Veretout almost 16 years later (November 2022, vs AS Monaco). At Olympique de Marseille, Payet has provided eight goals for Florian Thauvin, six for André-Pierre Gignac, five for Kostas Mitroglou and four for Valère Germain. Bafé Gomis scored four times from Payet's services (three at ASSE, one at OM), as did defenders Aurélien Chedjou and Marko Basa with LOSC.
In second place in this historic ranking, Jérôme Rothen racked up 80 assists with ESTAC, AS Monaco, Paris SG and SC Bastia, with a peak of 17 in the 2002-03 season. On that occasion, he was instrumental in ten of the 26 goals scored by Shabani Nonda.
Two lefties on the podium
Angel Di Maria is third on the podium, with 72 assists - all for Paris Saint-Germain. This makes ADM the player with the most assists for any single team in Ligue 1 Uber Eats. In the French capital, the Argentinian racked up two assist leader awards (2016 and 2020) and clocked 17 assists each for Kylian Mbappé and Edinson Cavani.
Another legendary pairing in the league is Olivier Monterrubio - ranked fourth for Ligue 1 Uber Eats assists this century (70) - and Alexander Frei. At Stade Rennais, the Swiss striker received 22 assists from the left-footer over just three seasons!
If the official ranking of passers had been created earlier, Monterrubio would have been crowned champion in 2003-04 with his 18 assists and possibly the following season too (13 assists), while in 2005-06 - a year before the ranking was created - he would only have been beaten by the elegant Dane Thomas Kahlenberg (AJ Auxerre) - both with 11 assists - in terms of the number of passes in open play.
Last but not least, Juninho's 58 assists for Olympique Lyonnais, including 33 from set-pieces, put him in the top five of the century's top assists providers. That's just one ahead of Kylian Mbappé (PSG)!
Ligue 1 Uber Eats assists in the 21st century:
1. Dimitri Payet: 106 assists
2. Jérôme Rothen: 80
3. Angel Di Maria: 72
4. Olivier Monterrubio: 70
5. Juninho: 58
-. Jimmy Briand: 58
-. Ryad Boudebouz: 58
8. Kylian Mbappé: 57
9. Benoît Pedretti: 54
10. Mathieu Valbuena: 49
11. Neymar Jr: 48
12. Gaël Danic: 47
13. Jérôme Leroy: 45
--. Julien Féret: 45
--. Eric Carrière: 45
16. Benoît Cheyrou: 44
17. Florian Thauvin: 43
--. Romain Hamouma: 43
19. Javier Pastore: 42
--. Ludovic Giuly: 42
--. Marvin Martin: 42
22. Sidney Govou: 40
Monterrubio on par with Di Maria
Some of the biggest names in Ligue 1 Uber Eats history are further down the historic list: Memphis Depay (OL, 39 assists), Marco Verratti (PSG, 38), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG, 37), Yoann Gourcuff (SRFC, Bordeaux and OL, 37), as well as Nenê (ASM and PSG, 35) and Eden Hazard (LOSC, 33).
Similarly, some experts in the art of the final ball have not found a place in the top passers of the 21st century. More often than not, this is because their careers spanned more than the 1990s. This was the case for Ali Benarbia. From Martigues to PSG via Bordeaux and Monaco between 1993 and 2001, the Algerian racked up 66 assists in the league, including 14 in the 1996-97 Monaco season. The same goes for Johan Micoud, Marco Simone (12 assists in 99-00), Lilian Laslandes, Franck Gava, Vikash Dhorasoo (13, 01-02) and Reynald Pedros, all of whom are thought to have approached or surpassed 50 assists.
The same goes for the older Alain Giresse (12 assists in 87-88) and Safet Susic. The latter managed 18 assists in 1984-85 with PSG. If there had been a ranking of assists in his time, the Bosnian would have come in at 75 over nine seasons.
Assists in a single season:
18: Olivier Monterrubio (SRFC, 03-04), Angel Di Maria (PSG, 15-16)
17: Jérôme Rothen (ASM, 02-03), Marvin Martin (FCSM, 10-11), Kylian Mbappé (PSG, 21-22)
16: Dimitri Payet (OM, 14-15), Lionel Messi (PSG, 22-23)
15: Eden Hazard (LOSC, 11-12)
>> Official Ligue 1 Uber Eats assists chart
