Who are the most dangerous football players in Europe’s top five leagues? Using the most up-to-date player data, BetVictor has analysed the performance of every player so far this season across the Premier League, Serie A, German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga and French Ligue 1.
Players were then ranked by their output per 90 minutes of non-penalty expected goals (npxG) plus expected assists (xA), to uncover those achieving the highest expected goal production per game.
The Top 50 Most Dangerous Footballers in Europe Right Now
| Player | European Rank | Nation | Team | League | npxG+xA per 90 |
| Robert Lewandowski | 1 | POL | Bayern | Bundesliga | 1.14 |
| Erling Haaland | 2 | NOR | Dortmund | Bundesliga | 0.91 |
| Mohamed Salah | 3 | EGY | Liverpool | Premier League | 0.9 |
| Kylian Mbappé | 4 | FRA | PSG | Ligue 1 | 0.88 |
| Diogo Jota | 4 | POR | Liverpool | Premier League | 0.88 |
| Karim Benzema | 6 | FRA | Real Madrid | La Liga | 0.86 |
| Lionel Messi | 7 | ARG | PSG | Ligue 1 | 0.83 |
| Thomas Müller | 8 | GER | Bayern | Bundesliga | 0.78 |
| Christopher Nkunku | 8 | FRA | RB Leipzig | Bundesliga | 0.78 |
| Patrik Schick | 10 | CZE | Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 0.77 |
| Leroy Sané | 11 | GER | Bayern | Bundesliga | 0.76 |
| Arnaut Groeneveld | 12 | NED | Villarreal | La Liga | 0.74 |
| Mario Pašalić | 12 | CRO | Atalanta | Serie A | 0.74 |
| Gerard Moreno | 14 | ESP | Villarreal | La Liga | 0.73 |
| Zlatan Ibrahimović | 14 | SWE | Milan | Serie A | 0.73 |
| Duván Zapata | 14 | COL | Atalanta | Serie A | 0.73 |
| Sadio Mané | 17 | SEN | Liverpool | Premier League | 0.72 |
| Harry Kane | 17 | ENG | Tottenham | Premier League | 0.72 |
| Tammy Abraham | 17 | ENG | Roma | Serie A | 0.72 |
| Lautaro Martínez | 20 | ARG | Inter | Serie A | 0.71 |
| Lukas Nmecha | 21 | GER | Wolfsburg | Bundesliga | 0.7 |
| Edin Džeko | 21 | BIH | Inter | Serie A | 0.7 |
| İlkay Gündoğan | 23 | GER | Man City | Premier League | 0.69 |
| Phil Foden | 23 | ENG | Man City | Premier League | 0.69 |
| Son Heung-min | 23 | KOR | Tottenham | Premier League | 0.69 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 26 | POR | Man United | Premier League | 0.68 |
| Serge Gnabry | 27 | GER | Bayern | Bundesliga | 0.66 |
| Vinicius Júnior | 27 | BRA | Real Madrid | La Liga | 0.66 |
| Marco Reus | 29 | GER | Dortmund | Bundesliga | 0.65 |
| Neymar | 29 | BRA | PSG | Ligue 1 | 0.65 |
| Gaëtan Laborde | 29 | FRA | Rennes | Ligue 1 | 0.65 |
| Habib Diallo | 32 | SEN | Strasbourg | Ligue 1 | 0.64 |
| Jonas Hofmann | 33 | GER | Monchengladbach | Bundesliga | 0.63 |
| Florian Wirtz | 33 | GER | Leverkusen | Bundesliga | 0.63 |
| Raheem Sterling | 33 | ENG | Man City | Premier League | 0.63 |
| Alassane Pléa | 36 | FRA | Monchengladbach | Bundesliga | 0.62 |
| Andrej Kramarić | 36 | CRO | Hoffenheim | Bundesliga | 0.62 |
| Riyad Mahrez | 36 | ALG | Man City | Premier League | 0.62 |
| Taiwo Awoniyi | 39 | NGA | Union Berlin | Bundesliga | 0.61 |
| Iñaki Williams | 39 | ESP | Athletic Club | La Liga | 0.61 |
| Luis Muriel | 39 | COL | Atalanta | Serie A | 0.61 |
| Karim Onisiwo | 42 | AUT | Mainz | Bundesliga | 0.6 |
| Memphis Depay | 42 | NED | Barcelona | La Liga | 0.6 |
| Stevan Jovetić | 44 | MNE | Hertha BSC | Bundesliga | 0.59 |
| Jesper Lindstrøm | 44 | DEN | Eintracht Frankfurt | Bundesliga | 0.59 |
| Ciro Immobile | 44 | ITA | Lazio | Serie A | 0.59 |
| Ángel Di María | 44 | ARG | PSG | Ligue 1 | 0.59 |
| Andy Delort | 44 | ALG | Nice | Ligue 1 | 0.59 |
| Burak Yılmaz | 44 | TUR | LOSC | Ligue 1 | 0.59 |
| Gabriel Jesus | 44 | BRA | Man City | Premier League | 0.59 |
Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski is the top ranked player overall based on expected goal production with a npxG+xA rate of 1.14, which is higher than the entire Getafe team have managed this season (1.13 squad npxG+xA per 90 minutes).
His 0.95 npxG per 90 is the highest achieved by any player and 0.22 above second placed Patrick Schick. Lewandowski’s 31 domestic league goals is the best player total. It’s greater than the amount scored by 29 different teams (excludes own goals in favour of) across Europe’s top 5 divisions including the likes of Newcastle United (30 goals), Wolves (29 goals), and Everton (27 goals).
Top 25 Players by xA per 90 and npxG per 90
Manchester City have the most players in the top 50 with five, demonstrating their abundance of attacking resources. Manchester City players account for 10.93% of the total npxG+xA ahead of Bayern Munich (9.36%), PSG (8.27), and Liverpool (7.01%), who were the next best represented teams. Phil Foden and İlkay Gündoğan are Man City’s most dangerous men based on expected output, ranking in joint 23rd with 0.69 npxG+xA alongside Premier League rival Son Heung-min.
In terms of a breakdown by league, Bundesliga players account for the highest amount of the total npxG+xA with 34.40%, followed by the Premier League (22.31%), Serie A (15.8%), Ligue 1 (15.49%), and La Liga (12.00%).
Liverpool has the most players in the top 5 with both Mohamed Salah (0.9 npxG+xA) and Diogo Jota (0.88 npxG+xA) included and joint most players in the top 25 alongside Bayern Munich, with both clubs each having three players. Manchester United have just one player feature in the list, with Cristiano Ronaldo ranked 26th. Arsenal and Chelsea have no players featured in the top 50 – their highest-ranking players were Bukayo Saka (102nd) and Mason Mount (52nd). Meanwhile, Tammy Abraham may feel hard done by having been snubbed for a recent England call-up, with the Roma and former Chelsea player the joint top English player for npxG+xA matching Harry Kane’s rate of 0.72 per 90.
English players make up 7.89% of the total npxG+xA of the top 50, the third best percentage of any nation. German players lead the way by some margin, however, accounting for 15.71% of the total, with French nationals in second place accounting for 10.83% of Europe’s most dangerous players. In fourth place is Argentina, with Lautaro Martínez, Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María accounting for 6.09%. In fifth place is Brazil with 5.43%, ahead of sixth place Portugal with 4.46%. Italy is the worst represented country in which any of represented leagues are based, with just one national player in the top 50 players in the form of Lazio’s Ciro Immobile in 44th place (0.59 npxG+xA).
Methodology
- Statistics are based on domestic league performance during the 2021-2022 season and are accurate as of 28/03/2022.
- Players with less than 900 minutes played were omitted from the data to improve the reliability and accuracy of findings.
- Expected goal and assist data is based on models provided by StatsBomb.
- Players were ranked by npxG+xA per 90 minutes in order of highest to lowest with tied players assigned a joint rank.
