Confusion as leading goal-scorer fails to finish (4)
I believe the answer is:
mess
'confusion' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'leading goal-scorer fails to finish' is the wordplay.
'leading goal scorer' becomes 'mes' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to finish' says to take the final letters.
The final letter of 'fails' is 's'.
'mes'+'s'='MESS'
'as' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mess that I've seen before include "Chaos, confusion" , "State of confusion - where servicemen eat" , "Where one might eat" , "dirty and unpleasant" , "Officers' restaurant - what a dump" .)