Vinicius Jnr: Ranking the Top 10 Active Players with Most Assists Amid Brazilian’s Remarkable Rise

• Vinicius Junior has already established himself as a Champions League legend
• The Brazilian has more assists in the competition’s knockout stages than Lionel Messi
• He ranks 24th in the list of all-time assists in the Champions League despite being just 23

When speaking about future Ballon d’Or winners, Vinicius Junior is surely in the conversation.

The Brazilian has already established himself as one of the best wingers in world football, playing an integral part in Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.

Los Blancos are on course for another La Liga title, and this largely has to do with the Brazilian’s brilliance in the Spanish top flight.

Things are no different for the 23-year old in the Champions League, as he recently helped Real Madrid claw a 3-3 draw against Manchester City in what was a highly-entertaining game of football.

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Vinicius Junior ties Messi

Having set up Rodrygo for Los Blancos’ second goal, Vinicius took his Champions League assist tally for the 2023/24 season to four, which is level with Jude Bellingham and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, according to BBC.

One trend about the winger is he tends to turn up in the Champions League when it matters, and he has the stats to prove it.

After his heroics on Tuesday, April 9, Vinicius now has the same number of assists in Champions League knockout stages as Lionel Messi, with 19 assists in 22 games.

To put it into context, Messi has 40 assists in total in the Champions League, a competition he has featured in for more than 12 years, while Vinicius only burst into the scene in 2019, a year after joining Real Madrid.

Vini Jnr’s rank in all-time assists

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In terms of all-time assists, Vinicius Junior sits in 24th place with 20 assists. It is quite remarkable to imagine he has only set up one goal in the competition’s group stages,

To show how easily the former Flamengo forward can rise up the charts, here is a comprehensive list of players with most assists in the competition per UEFA.com:

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Vini Jnr’s rank vs current UCL players

We can further break down the rankings to show just how good Vinicius Jnr is in the Champions League.

In terms of current active players in the Champions League, only Angel di Maria, Neymar, Kevin de Bruyne and Kylian Mbappe have more assists. All these players have played a considerably higher number of games than Vinicius.

Active players with most assists

1. Di Maria (Benfica), 39

2. Kevin de Bruyne, 29

3. Thomas Mueller 29

4. Kylian Mbappe 22

5. Raheem Sterling 21

6. Vinicius Junior 20

7. Leroy Sane, 19

8. David Alaba 18

9. Luka Modric 17

10. Joshua Kimmich, 17

What next for Vinicius Junior?

With the Champions League finely poised, Vinicius Junior will hope to inspire his side to knock out Manchester City when the two teams meet again on Wednesday, April 17.

For now, focus shifts back to La Liga as Los Blancos prepare to visit Mallorca on April 13.

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When Vini Jnr tried to injure Barca star

Earlier, Sports Brief reported on the back clash Vinicius Junior received after an incident with Barcelona’s Yamine Lamal.

This all unfolded in the recent international break, when Brazil took on Spain.

The Real Madrid winger was seen committing a violent foul on Yamal with questionable levels of aggression.