REVEALED: PSG forward is the world's top creator according to stats boffins... but can you guess which star is the only Premier League player to feature in the top five?

An international forward who also plays for PSG has been labelled as the most creative player in world football by statisticians.

The CIES Football Observatory has conducted its latest research in an attempt to measure chance creation worldwide, by developing a special creation index.

This is calculated by combining the number of key passes leading to chances and expected assists of each player per 90 minutes, with the result then weighted by the level of the match. This means that a game in the Premier League would effectively count for more than a game in the Bundesliga 2 or the Championship.

Players must have also featured for at least 630 minutes in the league for the same team during the 2023-24 campaign to be considered. 

Following the research, PSG winger Ousmane Dembele comes out as the top creator in world football, with the French international scoring a creation index of 2.36.

Dembele moved to PSG from Barcelona for £43.5million in the summer and has already laid on four assists for Luis Enrique's side, although he is yet to score.

His team-mate in Paris, Kylian Mbappe, is the fourth most creative player in the world, with the 24-year-old languishing beyond Athletic Club's Spanish winger Nico Williams and Bayern Munich star Leroy Sane who are third and second on the list respectively. 

In perhaps surprising news, the only Premier League player to feature in the top five creators is Aston Villa's Moussa Diaby.

However, for those that have watched Unai Emery's side closely this season, the Frenchman's inclusion is not too unexpected with Diaby having already contributed three goals and three assists in what has been a stunning start to life in the Premier League.

Diaby is joined in the top 10 by sixth place Mohamed Salah, before Borussia Monchengladbach winger Franck Honorat, Maximiliano Nunez - who plays for Bolivian club Nacional Potosi - Inaki Williams, and Magnus Wolff Eikrem make up the top 10.

Inter Milan's Federico Dimarco and Newcastle skipper Kieran Trippier are the top-ranked defensive players, with both stars known for their superb deliveries and assist contributions over the past 12 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 all across the globe are represented.

Meanwhile, in terms of the most promising wonderkids, Bayer Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz, PSV's Johan Bakayoko and Ilya Kvasnytsya of Ukrainian side Rukh Lviv are the top creative players who are under the age of 21.