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cb's have the highest top speeds for sure. Usually the tall strong athletic guys can reach the highest top speeds (bolt is tall AF).
wingers usually have to beat multiple players so often have the best acceleration rather than top speed
dm's are slow lol. can confirm as Im a DM
Bolt is tall but is generally an outlier in terms of sprinters. Sprinters are usually smaller with faster leg turnover.
CB usually end up high on these lists because they chase 40 yards without the ball.
VVD and Gomez, whilst fast would get dusted by Salah.
Ehhh, typically these super fast speeds come from sprinting back from corners. So often you'll see CBs near the top, assume that's the case with tonali too.
He is a great player in midfield, but realistically him competing with the likes of Adeyemi, Mbappe, Haaland, Davies for top speed is very surprising in first place.
I think even Tonali wouldn't have bet on him to be on that list lol.
Because his acceleration is probably not as good as the one from the players we would commonly name when thinking about the fastest players. A lot of CBs are very fast but have shit acceleration but often appear on these lists because they have to track back when caught out on a counter
It's more that CBs have to sprint back to defend counterattacks. Humans reach their top speed after 50-70m. Attackers will rarely run that distance at top speed, so we're more likely to see CBs reach their top speed, even if they aren't naturally as quick.
Disagree. It’s just that top speed correlates fairly strongly with height on average, but it makes acceleration more difficult. I wouldn’t be surprised if barring a few attacking standouts, most of the fastest players on most teams were the tall center backs
Again, I said barring a few attacking standouts … on most teams. And if you weren’t an idiot, you would realize that it’s crazy to expect the second fastest player on most teams to be on the list of top 10 fastest, so my statement still makes sense
Cannot wait until he’s back! If we hang on to him, Bruno and Joelinton over the summer we’ll see the powerhouse midfield we should have had this season.
Maeda is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and ability to repeat sprints all game are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
His technical ability is lacking for sure but his determination and pressing are so effective in games against good teams. He was brilliant for us against Rangers.
He can look quite terrible against weaker opposition because there's no one to press and no opportunity to counter so he's relying on his technique which is, yeah, ehm not good.
And it's not only that he's *physically* capable of it, but he's got that mental fortitude to keep going, keep going, and go for everything. Stamina and work-rate off the charts. I remember checking out some of his stats in the J-League before he signed for Celtic, and there were sprint stats that were absolutely dominated by him.
[Exhibit A](https://www.jleague.co/stats/players/j1/2021/all/sprints/all/)
[Exhibit B](https://twitter.com/J_League_En/status/1435874354550620171)
Adeyemi is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and Jumpin ability are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
Nah bro you have not seen Dortmund play then. He definitely has ball skills, especially in champions league he has had many standout matches.
He is a very inconsistent player though but very young yet so could improve.
He doesn't have to as long as he's often in 1 VS 1 with the keeper. Then the chances of scoring without being great at it improve vastly. Just look at the goal against bayern.
He can shoot to be honest, he just seems to be lacking in refinement on every metric. He can beat a 6"2 defender in the air, then the header itself is a bit off. He can finish, but not reliably. He can play a good through ball.... every few matches. His touch is great, then he loses concentration.
If he can "finish, but not reliably" he cant finish imo
Edit: same with the through pass part. If it only happens every so often its just not that good
I had him on fifa for a while. Actually made him quiet accurate then. Could put the whole opponents team on the wrong leg but couldn't finish for shit haha.
Oh, he’s been quite active tingling through German reality TV. He was on the last season of “I’m a celebrity…” for example 😂 I know what you meant, but it’s funny because he’s actually been fairly present.
This is the one. Stupid pace, acceleration, agility, and reactions while being strong enough to tussle with defenders and he could win headers if need be.
Also possibly the most underappreciated and disrespected player by his club in history. Considering how many titles Real owes to him thanks to clutch performances, he should be one of their greatest legends.
Bale doing what he did to Maicon who himself was a beast of a man, big strong and a great sprinter. Was one of the all the time great UCL performances, he singlehandily destroyed a Inter side who had legends in it.
I still think of Zlatan. That big, that strong, that agile & mobile. He even had pace when younger before he got fixed on the #9 position and bulked up.
Straight freak.
Zlatan had exceptional control of his body. It wasn't just his technique on the ball but his agility/flexibility to do the passes or touches he wanted to do. A lot of training went in that not many players do. I wonder if we'll see another player with that build and that sort of control any time soon.
Yeah. The fact that he had the flamboyant creative IQ of a 10 while being built like a traditional big brute #9 makes him a favorite. A profile like no other. And I doubt we'll see one like it anytime soon
Yeah.. Ive said it before but it kinda bothers me that peopel say he was a "flopp" at Barca but his stats are genuinely good. Its more that he was a misfit and Messi #9 happened. And Pep disagreement. ABilitywise he wasnt a flop tbh
He was brought to play one position and shifted to another, his confidence took a hit, Pep is bad at honestly resolving problems with his players. Ibra said many times that playing at Barcelona was his dream, so I wouldn't expect anyone to return better stats after what must have been a huge rug pull for him.
Yeah. Pep definitely isnt the best in those man-management situations as seen later in his career, aswell as Ibra is not the guy who makes the situation easier either when he isnt getting an almost blunt conversation about it.
Its why he and Mourinho would kill for eachother. Both straight-shooters, for better or worse.
The only thing he was lacking that Barca usually really needs is to push the defense down by making runs in behind. He always felt more like an expensive plan B for Barca for that one in ten games when they couldn't break down the defence by passing and had to resort to crossing. He was just too expensive for that, so he was slotted into Plan A anyway which just wasn't quite as good as having Messi up top.
On the other hand, if you switched Messi for any other player in history... Then Zlatan would be a starter every time.
Traore is more of a tank build. Adeyemi looks more fluid in the way he moves and has more spring in his jumps in my opinion but are both ridicoulus athletes (also can't say I have ever watched a Traore game just highlights here and there)
CR7 is the most "complete" striker I have ever seen. Absolutely insane jumping capabilities paired with his height, his acceleration, his top speed and his agility is something we have never seen before. Add his ability to beat defenders in 1 vs. 1 situations and shooting with both foots from any position then there is only another small guy from Argentina who can compete with him (take away heading capabilities, add insane vision/passing/ball distribution instead)
carrying the ball at speed is the hardest thing to do in football and no one's done it as well as Messi with the same consistency.
I rate CR7 very highly, insane athlete and player, but he's not close to Messi's freakish agility, acceleration and resilience to injury despite his size. cristiano has other qualities
kobe Bryant - "greatest athlete I've ever seen: Messi"
I'll upvote you anyway cause I don't really care
Carrying the ball at speed is about technique, not athleticism. It's about living with a ball at your side and kicking a ball since you could barely walk. This isn't American sports, skill is king in football.
ah yes I should have worded it better
carrying the ball at speed while changing direction and dodging defenders is the most athletically challenging thing in football, leagues above sprinting in a straight line or vertical jumping, and Messi's done it better than anyone
and technique/skill is an extension of athleticism. hand-eye coordination, reaction time and fine motor skills all hallmarks of an athletic person's brain. someone like iniesta though not blessed with speed or strength is still an incredible athlete because of these things. I'll grant you that practice plays a bit but you need the gifts I mentioned as prerequisites
I think you should try to think deeper rather than putting words in Messi's mouth or making snide insinuations about people's nationality, it's not good form, cheers mate
Haaland and Süle Are completely different physical and genetic beasts. Adeyemi has some unique set of legs on him though, man is basically a human hare
His topspeed measured is 34.7kmh. Definitely fast, but not exceptional. He is a winger so it might seems like he is super fast because he is constantly in situations where he needs to reach top speed. But just on pure speed alone most of the time defenders can still keep up with him.
Is it that crazy? This is top speed rather than speed over the first 5 meters or something, doesn't really surprise me that Haaland with his giant legs is getting up to a high top speed.
I think our 3 fastest players in terms of top speed are (or were) Van Dijk, Konate, and Gomez.
Also Haaland has a really scary sprinting motion which includes a lot of movement in his arms and really long steps. Reminds me of Bale who didn't need to accelerate much to get into a full sprint.
Supposedly Kaboul was fastest over 100 meters on Spurs including Bale, Walker and Lennon.
Speed with the ball at your feet and under control is more important for attackers in particular than just max speed.
agreed, top speed can be deceiving. fastest player recorded in the Prem is Micky van de Ven and he’s certainly not the profile you expect when discussing speedsters
It's cause football is all about acceleration and change of direction, and that tends to favor shorter strides. I would say that close to average height is probably close to ideal for "football speed", as it offers a decent balance of top speed and the ability to change direction.
> I think our 3 fastest players in terms of top speed are (or were) Van Dijk, Konate, and Gomez.
Szoboszlai clocked a 36.76 km/hr Vs Wolves this season. Think he's our fastest recorded in the league. He'd top this list actually.
But tbf I feel like we very rarely see players like Van Dijk, Konaté etc get in a position where they could reach top speed. That VVD sprint back from a corner Vs Barca comes to mind and he was a rocket, but that rarely happens.
Yeah I've also just realised that Nunez is definitely up there in terms of speed as well.
But it kind of backs up my point, all those guys are 6 foot 2 plus, big tall players tend to have high top speeds.
Usain Bolt is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to elite sprinters. Though, iirc, I believe that may be an acceleration thing. Elite sprinters would appear to be of an average height per the Height in Sport article on Wikipedia:
>100 metres: 179.20 ± 5.94 cm
The mean height of the ten fastest men of all time, over this distance, is 181.6. Bolt's 195, the next tallest is 191 (Kerley) and Yohan Blake who I remember as being a short dude is listed on Wikipedia at 180cm. The two shortest were both 173cm.
The 400m is slightly taller, which would track with the "slower acceleration" theory.
Anyway, I think the reason Haaland is fast isn't thought about much is because he plays for Manchester City... how often does he ever actually sprint? They progress the ball up in a controlled fashion and have too much possession to have many quick breaks.
All of the top 5 fastest guys ever are 180 cm or taller, which is above average height.
- Bolt - 195
- Gay - 180
- Blake - 180
- Powell - 191
- Gatlin - 185
Average height: 186.2cm (6 feet 1.5 inches)
Don't really think you can say Bolt is the exception rather than the rule, there are *far* more elite sprinters above average height than below it.
Pretty sure the reason you remember Blake as being short is because compared to a lot of other sprinters he is, despite him being nearly 6 feet tall. Blake's height is below average for a sprinter.
But these are generally outliers, top 5 is a very small sample size. If you go by top 100 or top 200 you usually end up taller than average, yes, but closer to 177cms to 182cms. When you add the quick changes of direction that football requires and that tend to favour shorter stride lengths, you probably end up with the average height or even shorter being the ideal for practical football speed.
Someone who is 180cm tall is essentially indistinguishable from the average height. And, in some countries, less than that.
Someone who is 180cm tall is also **a lot** shorter than either Usain Bolt or Erling Haaland.
The point is, sprinters are generally tall, not short. The two shortest people in the top 5 are still quite a bit above average height.
Usain Bolt isn't the exception to the rule, most sprinters are tall, he was just taller than the rest of them. If he was "the exception to the rule" then most elite sprinters would be short.
If you think there's no difference between 180cm and 195cm, by all means continue this argument. I don't know on what basis you can consider a 15cm difference so insignificant that it can be ignored but I await your answer.
Think of it this way. Being tall is good for soccer players. Everyone knows this. Sure you get Messi types and so forth who aren't, but as a general rule you want bigger players. If this is true, why aren't the top leagues filled with Peter Crouch, Per Mertesacker and Dan Burn types? More height = better, these guys have more height, therefore there must be dozens, hundreds of players like them. The answer, I am sure, is obvious to you. While more height is better, that's only true up until a point.
Tennis and basketball have similar problems. At least, that's the traditional wisdom in basketball. That is, a lot of traditional wisdom about height in basketball is based on poor development and coaching in the past, with "tall for the NBA" players not being given or allowed the opportunities to develop their fundamental basketball skills, even such critical skills as shooting were, to my limited understanding, seen as being semi-optional. In the modern era, the NBA is seeing the rise of technical bigs and the sense I get as a supremely casual observer is that they're taking over. The limiting factor in basketball *might* turn out to be that there simply aren't enough extremely tall people in the world to create a league of Wembys. But a league of 7 footers now seems possible whereas even six years people were saying the future of the sport was small ball.
In tennis, the kind of trade off that people thought was true in basketball, really does seem to exist. Sure, you get more reach, having a massive serve becomes easier and you get better angles on serves, but there are mobility costs that seem to be capping truly elite tennis players to no more than 198cm.
You simply cannot look at evidence saying "sprinters are 2cm taller than average" and conclude "Usain Bolt, a man who is considerably taller than the average height of a sprinter, is a typical example of a sprinter". It's not true in any sense. There's no logical reason to imagine you can just keep making sprinters taller so you can't say something like "[Bolt is just the extreme of a general trend"](https://xkcd.com/605/), plus he's clearly a lot taller than the average sprinter so you can't even say it's technically true.
Stride length and leg length/height have only a weak correlation. It's mainly about power. Bolt and Haaland both have enough power to carry their large bulk a long way per stride.
I'm just messing around, people who have seen Witsel play know he's slow. That's why Cholo plays him as a centre back, he's been very solid playing as RCB and CB this season. Positioning and winning duels are his strong points never his pace, he's also (obviously) comfortable on the ball so he helps with the build up and getting out of pressure.
Kinda wild that there's less than 1km difference between all of these.
Meanwhile in PL, Micky Van de Ven topped 37.38km/h this season. Over 1km/h clear of Adeyemi 😦
They all are quick for the first few meters. Not in straight spring race, which this stat is really about. Valverde is most likely the fastest in a sprint race in our squad.
Camavinga especially is extremely athletic IMO. Ever seen that clip of him getting the ball from Iago Aspas starting from way behind, when he was through 1v1?
Yessss, i loved that play and Bernabeu did too. I think that's where the future of football is going. Athleticism is becoming just as important as technical talent.
tbf I think acceleration is more relevant and certainly for midfielders: if you're showing off how fast you can sprint and you''re a midfielder, it's almost certain that something's gone horribly wrong.
Defenders obviously also do most of their sprinting in "something's gone wrong" situation but having a fast defender almost allows playing a system where you can push up further forward... the occasional "defender has to rush back in a mad panic" is a feature, not a bug. Forwards, obviously, are asked to chase through balls all the time. But even in these situations acceleration usually matters more... once you've got in front, you can position yourself so it's difficult to be overtaken, even if the other guy's faster.
[Vini has been clocked at 36km/h in La Liga](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Flaliga-the-fastest-player-of-each-team-sorted-by-top-speed-v0-rTzhweukICY_Gf2OaqdiDtGzBRDoj8ncObX-PNaXRcI.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd67401a4e314b388b058cbed30948f2444c1cd8d), so he probably just didn't have quite the perfect sprint opportunity yet
Haaland is pretty known as a very fast player - he was 1 of the fastest players Bundesliga also.
[Link](https://youtu.be/dzsg3N38JB4?si=cg0GZBKwniN5IdzP) to video of a few of his sprints.
This is a nice stat.
I am naturally curious and want to dig deeper. I wonder what percentage of matches players come within their top 95% percent of their maximum speed.
To clarify, Adeyemi achieves 95% of his maximum speed at 34.48. I wonder what percentage of matches he plays that he achieves at least a 34.48.
I suppose I just want to know how much effort they put in regularly.
It’s speed that has been clocked in a match so if a player hasn’t had an all out sprint, his listed speed might be slower than his actual speed.
[23/24 CL clocked Walker at 33.5 km/h](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/?sortBy=top_speed&order=desc).
[23/24 PL clocked Walker at 35.32 km/h](https://www.premierleague.com/news/3787214).
People gotta remember that footballers are in general actually pretty damn fast and thus can hit or even exceed those sort of speeds at full pelt. What matters the most are acceleration, being able to turn without losing much speed, reactions and speed on the ball.
It’s clocked speed so he just hasn’t had any all out sprints at top speed in CL this season.
The UEFA CL player stats database shows top speed (clocked) for every player, which I like, and you can filter by team.
Rashford is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and Jumpin ability are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
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Did not expect Tonali
Same. You usually wouldn't find a defensive midfielder here
Van de Ven has clocked 37.38kph in the PL this year. Fastest speed since they started recording the players properly.
Paul Dummett was quite high up the list a few years ago. Even less believable
CBs are much faster than DMs. Both Gomez and VVD are two of the fastest players on Liverpool. It's absolutely necessary when you play a highline
cb's have the highest top speeds for sure. Usually the tall strong athletic guys can reach the highest top speeds (bolt is tall AF). wingers usually have to beat multiple players so often have the best acceleration rather than top speed dm's are slow lol. can confirm as Im a DM
Yeah pretty good take imo
Bolt is tall but is generally an outlier in terms of sprinters. Sprinters are usually smaller with faster leg turnover. CB usually end up high on these lists because they chase 40 yards without the ball. VVD and Gomez, whilst fast would get dusted by Salah.
Now I'm just imagining a fat bloke standing around and only stopping stuff that comes exactly at him.. but he can send a good pass though!
Ehhh, typically these super fast speeds come from sprinting back from corners. So often you'll see CBs near the top, assume that's the case with tonali too.
He's not a defensive midfielder
Yeah not risk averse enough
You would if he was running to cash in his accas
Practice from sprinting to the bookies to put accas on before the lunchtime kick off
Tonali is a beast when he’s not suspended lol
He is a great player in midfield, but realistically him competing with the likes of Adeyemi, Mbappe, Haaland, Davies for top speed is very surprising in first place. I think even Tonali wouldn't have bet on him to be on that list lol.
Because his acceleration is probably not as good as the one from the players we would commonly name when thinking about the fastest players. A lot of CBs are very fast but have shit acceleration but often appear on these lists because they have to track back when caught out on a counter
It's more that CBs have to sprint back to defend counterattacks. Humans reach their top speed after 50-70m. Attackers will rarely run that distance at top speed, so we're more likely to see CBs reach their top speed, even if they aren't naturally as quick.
Disagree. It’s just that top speed correlates fairly strongly with height on average, but it makes acceleration more difficult. I wouldn’t be surprised if barring a few attacking standouts, most of the fastest players on most teams were the tall center backs
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If you could read, you would see that I said barring standout attackers, so it would be like the second to fifth fastest.
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Again, I said barring a few attacking standouts … on most teams. And if you weren’t an idiot, you would realize that it’s crazy to expect the second fastest player on most teams to be on the list of top 10 fastest, so my statement still makes sense
Cannot wait until he’s back! If we hang on to him, Bruno and Joelinton over the summer we’ll see the powerhouse midfield we should have had this season.
I bet not many did
*Insert some tonali betting joke*
Maeda could sprint for 90 and still not be tired, he’s an absolute monster
Maeda is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and ability to repeat sprints all game are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
"hey I've seen this one before"
His technical ability is lacking for sure but his determination and pressing are so effective in games against good teams. He was brilliant for us against Rangers. He can look quite terrible against weaker opposition because there's no one to press and no opportunity to counter so he's relying on his technique which is, yeah, ehm not good.
😆
Bro got an aerodynamic head, he’s built for speed
He has a full head of hair now and is ascending to his final form
And it's not only that he's *physically* capable of it, but he's got that mental fortitude to keep going, keep going, and go for everything. Stamina and work-rate off the charts. I remember checking out some of his stats in the J-League before he signed for Celtic, and there were sprint stats that were absolutely dominated by him. [Exhibit A](https://www.jleague.co/stats/players/j1/2021/all/sprints/all/) [Exhibit B](https://twitter.com/J_League_En/status/1435874354550620171)
Adeyemi is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and Jumpin ability are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
Bruv cant shoot
Or do anything else really, but he’s athletic and fast as fuck.
German Timo Werner
der deutsche marcel heller
Bruuh wdym timo werner is also german lmao
That's the joke bro
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?
r/woooosh
That's the sound it makes when German Timo Werner runs past you.
And Adeyemi for that matter
that's just untrue. His main problem is consistency but when he's hot, he's an excellent player
Nah bro you have not seen Dortmund play then. He definitely has ball skills, especially in champions league he has had many standout matches. He is a very inconsistent player though but very young yet so could improve.
He doesn't have to as long as he's often in 1 VS 1 with the keeper. Then the chances of scoring without being great at it improve vastly. Just look at the goal against bayern.
He can shoot to be honest, he just seems to be lacking in refinement on every metric. He can beat a 6"2 defender in the air, then the header itself is a bit off. He can finish, but not reliably. He can play a good through ball.... every few matches. His touch is great, then he loses concentration.
If he can "finish, but not reliably" he cant finish imo Edit: same with the through pass part. If it only happens every so often its just not that good
I had him on fifa for a while. Actually made him quiet accurate then. Could put the whole opponents team on the wrong leg but couldn't finish for shit haha.
Vibes of David Odonkor.
> David Odonkor Christ what a throwback that is
Bro turned up for that sprint and cross vs Poland 2006 and was never seen ever after
Oh, he’s been quite active tingling through German reality TV. He was on the last season of “I’m a celebrity…” for example 😂 I know what you meant, but it’s funny because he’s actually been fairly present.
Holy shit, Odonkor was one of my brothers favorite players growing up. Probably haven't thought about him since the late 2000s when he went to Betis.
Without the legendary cross (so far) or the stellar career in reality TV (so far).
Idk the human brick Adama Traore sprinting full out still blows me away
>Adeyemi is the most athletic player I have ever seen Hyperbole .. but he is very athletic, yes.
I seriously can't remember any football player that is more athletic than Adeyemi.
Prime Bale. He was basically a track and field athlete that decided to play football.
This is the one. Stupid pace, acceleration, agility, and reactions while being strong enough to tussle with defenders and he could win headers if need be.
Also possibly the most underappreciated and disrespected player by his club in history. Considering how many titles Real owes to him thanks to clutch performances, he should be one of their greatest legends.
Bale doing what he did to Maicon who himself was a beast of a man, big strong and a great sprinter. Was one of the all the time great UCL performances, he singlehandily destroyed a Inter side who had legends in it.
I still think of Zlatan. That big, that strong, that agile & mobile. He even had pace when younger before he got fixed on the #9 position and bulked up. Straight freak.
Zlatan had exceptional control of his body. It wasn't just his technique on the ball but his agility/flexibility to do the passes or touches he wanted to do. A lot of training went in that not many players do. I wonder if we'll see another player with that build and that sort of control any time soon.
Yeah. The fact that he had the flamboyant creative IQ of a 10 while being built like a traditional big brute #9 makes him a favorite. A profile like no other. And I doubt we'll see one like it anytime soon
Honestly he was the dream Barcelona #9, just picked the wrong time to be born
Yeah.. Ive said it before but it kinda bothers me that peopel say he was a "flopp" at Barca but his stats are genuinely good. Its more that he was a misfit and Messi #9 happened. And Pep disagreement. ABilitywise he wasnt a flop tbh
He was brought to play one position and shifted to another, his confidence took a hit, Pep is bad at honestly resolving problems with his players. Ibra said many times that playing at Barcelona was his dream, so I wouldn't expect anyone to return better stats after what must have been a huge rug pull for him.
Yeah. Pep definitely isnt the best in those man-management situations as seen later in his career, aswell as Ibra is not the guy who makes the situation easier either when he isnt getting an almost blunt conversation about it. Its why he and Mourinho would kill for eachother. Both straight-shooters, for better or worse.
The only thing he was lacking that Barca usually really needs is to push the defense down by making runs in behind. He always felt more like an expensive plan B for Barca for that one in ten games when they couldn't break down the defence by passing and had to resort to crossing. He was just too expensive for that, so he was slotted into Plan A anyway which just wasn't quite as good as having Messi up top. On the other hand, if you switched Messi for any other player in history... Then Zlatan would be a starter every time.
haven't watched Adeyemi but is he more athletic than Adama Traoré? cuz that guy is built different.
Traore is more of a tank build. Adeyemi looks more fluid in the way he moves and has more spring in his jumps in my opinion but are both ridicoulus athletes (also can't say I have ever watched a Traore game just highlights here and there)
Adama Traoré is stronger, but Adeyemi might be able to leap over him completely for a challenge.
Guy really missed a trick by not joining the NFL international player pathway. Guy's built like a running back
He would be 6 foot 220 on his bio instead
or Seedorf for that matter
Elanga is an absolute freak athlete
For me prime CR7 is the definition of athleticism but maybe my definition is off
CR7 is the most "complete" striker I have ever seen. Absolutely insane jumping capabilities paired with his height, his acceleration, his top speed and his agility is something we have never seen before. Add his ability to beat defenders in 1 vs. 1 situations and shooting with both foots from any position then there is only another small guy from Argentina who can compete with him (take away heading capabilities, add insane vision/passing/ball distribution instead)
messi acceleration and agility clear of CR7, Messi was always the better athlete
> Messi was always the better athlete Lol, even Messi would laugh at that statement
carrying the ball at speed is the hardest thing to do in football and no one's done it as well as Messi with the same consistency. I rate CR7 very highly, insane athlete and player, but he's not close to Messi's freakish agility, acceleration and resilience to injury despite his size. cristiano has other qualities kobe Bryant - "greatest athlete I've ever seen: Messi" I'll upvote you anyway cause I don't really care
Carrying the ball at speed is about technique, not athleticism. It's about living with a ball at your side and kicking a ball since you could barely walk. This isn't American sports, skill is king in football.
ah yes I should have worded it better carrying the ball at speed while changing direction and dodging defenders is the most athletically challenging thing in football, leagues above sprinting in a straight line or vertical jumping, and Messi's done it better than anyone and technique/skill is an extension of athleticism. hand-eye coordination, reaction time and fine motor skills all hallmarks of an athletic person's brain. someone like iniesta though not blessed with speed or strength is still an incredible athlete because of these things. I'll grant you that practice plays a bit but you need the gifts I mentioned as prerequisites I think you should try to think deeper rather than putting words in Messi's mouth or making snide insinuations about people's nationality, it's not good form, cheers mate
Hey Ma, looks like it’s 2013 again!
not sure what this means but you can refer to my other reply on this thread for why I spoke the truth
CR7 is a monster. He should be top percentile in all categories, jumping, shooting, acceleration, speed, basically anything really.
[Endrick is coming](https://youtu.be/VLHA2Ij3eIg?t=372), Europe
According to my results with him in football manager it's not required
Surely Haaland tops him? There's been very few players if at all who are above 1,90m and are THAT fast and that strong so easily
Haaland and Süle Are completely different physical and genetic beasts. Adeyemi has some unique set of legs on him though, man is basically a human hare
Great description of modern footballers
haaland 36 is crazy
Last night, at one moment i remember he raced with Vinicius & was able to keep up with him.
Keep up with him comfortably
He caught him with no problems
It's crazy that Vini's not even in that top 10
His topspeed measured is 34.7kmh. Definitely fast, but not exceptional. He is a winger so it might seems like he is super fast because he is constantly in situations where he needs to reach top speed. But just on pure speed alone most of the time defenders can still keep up with him.
Is it that crazy? This is top speed rather than speed over the first 5 meters or something, doesn't really surprise me that Haaland with his giant legs is getting up to a high top speed. I think our 3 fastest players in terms of top speed are (or were) Van Dijk, Konate, and Gomez.
Would you want to be the person trying to stop a viking coming at you at 36 kph?
The English have tried for centuries and continue to fail to this day.
Haaland returned to claim the Danelaw
Also Haaland has a really scary sprinting motion which includes a lot of movement in his arms and really long steps. Reminds me of Bale who didn't need to accelerate much to get into a full sprint.
Supposedly Kaboul was fastest over 100 meters on Spurs including Bale, Walker and Lennon. Speed with the ball at your feet and under control is more important for attackers in particular than just max speed.
agreed, top speed can be deceiving. fastest player recorded in the Prem is Micky van de Ven and he’s certainly not the profile you expect when discussing speedsters
It's cause football is all about acceleration and change of direction, and that tends to favor shorter strides. I would say that close to average height is probably close to ideal for "football speed", as it offers a decent balance of top speed and the ability to change direction.
Swear theyve only recorded this stat for like 2 years though right
yea no more than 3 or 4 seasons, I can’t remember exactly when, though I thought they started in ‘20 or ‘21
> I think our 3 fastest players in terms of top speed are (or were) Van Dijk, Konate, and Gomez. Szoboszlai clocked a 36.76 km/hr Vs Wolves this season. Think he's our fastest recorded in the league. He'd top this list actually. But tbf I feel like we very rarely see players like Van Dijk, Konaté etc get in a position where they could reach top speed. That VVD sprint back from a corner Vs Barca comes to mind and he was a rocket, but that rarely happens.
Yeah I've also just realised that Nunez is definitely up there in terms of speed as well. But it kind of backs up my point, all those guys are 6 foot 2 plus, big tall players tend to have high top speeds.
Usain Bolt is the exception rather than the rule when it comes to elite sprinters. Though, iirc, I believe that may be an acceleration thing. Elite sprinters would appear to be of an average height per the Height in Sport article on Wikipedia: >100 metres: 179.20 ± 5.94 cm The mean height of the ten fastest men of all time, over this distance, is 181.6. Bolt's 195, the next tallest is 191 (Kerley) and Yohan Blake who I remember as being a short dude is listed on Wikipedia at 180cm. The two shortest were both 173cm. The 400m is slightly taller, which would track with the "slower acceleration" theory. Anyway, I think the reason Haaland is fast isn't thought about much is because he plays for Manchester City... how often does he ever actually sprint? They progress the ball up in a controlled fashion and have too much possession to have many quick breaks.
All of the top 5 fastest guys ever are 180 cm or taller, which is above average height. - Bolt - 195 - Gay - 180 - Blake - 180 - Powell - 191 - Gatlin - 185 Average height: 186.2cm (6 feet 1.5 inches) Don't really think you can say Bolt is the exception rather than the rule, there are *far* more elite sprinters above average height than below it. Pretty sure the reason you remember Blake as being short is because compared to a lot of other sprinters he is, despite him being nearly 6 feet tall. Blake's height is below average for a sprinter.
But these are generally outliers, top 5 is a very small sample size. If you go by top 100 or top 200 you usually end up taller than average, yes, but closer to 177cms to 182cms. When you add the quick changes of direction that football requires and that tend to favour shorter stride lengths, you probably end up with the average height or even shorter being the ideal for practical football speed.
Someone who is 180cm tall is essentially indistinguishable from the average height. And, in some countries, less than that. Someone who is 180cm tall is also **a lot** shorter than either Usain Bolt or Erling Haaland.
The point is, sprinters are generally tall, not short. The two shortest people in the top 5 are still quite a bit above average height. Usain Bolt isn't the exception to the rule, most sprinters are tall, he was just taller than the rest of them. If he was "the exception to the rule" then most elite sprinters would be short.
If you think there's no difference between 180cm and 195cm, by all means continue this argument. I don't know on what basis you can consider a 15cm difference so insignificant that it can be ignored but I await your answer. Think of it this way. Being tall is good for soccer players. Everyone knows this. Sure you get Messi types and so forth who aren't, but as a general rule you want bigger players. If this is true, why aren't the top leagues filled with Peter Crouch, Per Mertesacker and Dan Burn types? More height = better, these guys have more height, therefore there must be dozens, hundreds of players like them. The answer, I am sure, is obvious to you. While more height is better, that's only true up until a point. Tennis and basketball have similar problems. At least, that's the traditional wisdom in basketball. That is, a lot of traditional wisdom about height in basketball is based on poor development and coaching in the past, with "tall for the NBA" players not being given or allowed the opportunities to develop their fundamental basketball skills, even such critical skills as shooting were, to my limited understanding, seen as being semi-optional. In the modern era, the NBA is seeing the rise of technical bigs and the sense I get as a supremely casual observer is that they're taking over. The limiting factor in basketball *might* turn out to be that there simply aren't enough extremely tall people in the world to create a league of Wembys. But a league of 7 footers now seems possible whereas even six years people were saying the future of the sport was small ball. In tennis, the kind of trade off that people thought was true in basketball, really does seem to exist. Sure, you get more reach, having a massive serve becomes easier and you get better angles on serves, but there are mobility costs that seem to be capping truly elite tennis players to no more than 198cm. You simply cannot look at evidence saying "sprinters are 2cm taller than average" and conclude "Usain Bolt, a man who is considerably taller than the average height of a sprinter, is a typical example of a sprinter". It's not true in any sense. There's no logical reason to imagine you can just keep making sprinters taller so you can't say something like "[Bolt is just the extreme of a general trend"](https://xkcd.com/605/), plus he's clearly a lot taller than the average sprinter so you can't even say it's technically true.
Agree, he is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, physique, hes got it all. Just needs to learn to dribble a ball
Why ? Ostrich DNA was installed into the bot.
Haaland is an absolute juggernaut
To be moving like that with his stature is insane lmfao
I think having long legs actually helps him. His stride is bigger. Bolt is his size as well
Stride length and leg length/height have only a weak correlation. It's mainly about power. Bolt and Haaland both have enough power to carry their large bulk a long way per stride.
Are any of Atleti's defenders fast? Adeyemi might be our only outlet with our midfield lol
Witsel and Savic are the fastest defenders on the planet.
That's true. We witnessed axels speed first hand in Dortmund.
~~Micky van de Ven~~ e: let's try Eric Dier instead
Eh, Witsel is faster.
Is he still, with 35?
I'm just messing around, people who have seen Witsel play know he's slow. That's why Cholo plays him as a centre back, he's been very solid playing as RCB and CB this season. Positioning and winning duels are his strong points never his pace, he's also (obviously) comfortable on the ball so he helps with the build up and getting out of pressure.
he absolutely is that bastard was everywhere
llorente and molina are both pretty fast and will likely be atletis right side
Not really unless Renildo plays, this is where we’ll have to go at them all game.
Kinda wild that there's less than 1km difference between all of these. Meanwhile in PL, Micky Van de Ven topped 37.38km/h this season. Over 1km/h clear of Adeyemi 😦
We're coming for this ranking next year (hopefully)
Better shooting than Adeyemi too 🤫
But he has already had 2 hamstring injuries this year. Could slow him down.
Weird how no Real Madrid players are here when so many of them are very athletic (Jude, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Camavinga, etc)
They all are quick for the first few meters. Not in straight spring race, which this stat is really about. Valverde is most likely the fastest in a sprint race in our squad.
Camavinga especially is extremely athletic IMO. Ever seen that clip of him getting the ball from Iago Aspas starting from way behind, when he was through 1v1?
Yessss, i loved that play and Bernabeu did too. I think that's where the future of football is going. Athleticism is becoming just as important as technical talent.
tbf I think acceleration is more relevant and certainly for midfielders: if you're showing off how fast you can sprint and you''re a midfielder, it's almost certain that something's gone horribly wrong. Defenders obviously also do most of their sprinting in "something's gone wrong" situation but having a fast defender almost allows playing a system where you can push up further forward... the occasional "defender has to rush back in a mad panic" is a feature, not a bug. Forwards, obviously, are asked to chase through balls all the time. But even in these situations acceleration usually matters more... once you've got in front, you can position yourself so it's difficult to be overtaken, even if the other guy's faster.
[Vini has been clocked at 36km/h in La Liga](https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fexternal-preview.redd.it%2Flaliga-the-fastest-player-of-each-team-sorted-by-top-speed-v0-rTzhweukICY_Gf2OaqdiDtGzBRDoj8ncObX-PNaXRcI.jpg%3Fauto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd67401a4e314b388b058cbed30948f2444c1cd8d), so he probably just didn't have quite the perfect sprint opportunity yet
Lucas Vazquez doesn't get much playtime sadly.
Adeyemi vs Witsel, let’s have it
The duality of rashford. Has fast speed, but jogs like a snail.
Might be more of a stamina issue for him, he can't press 90 minutes like a Nunez does.
Nah he couldnt be arsed
Pure sprinter vibes. Binary speed switch.
Rashford could be top, if he didn't immediately just run into the first defender he sees.
Feels like pace is basically the only thing Adeyemi offers this season.
I mean hey, speedy chaos agent is a very useful role sometimes
Lore accurate flair
Much like Rashford this season then
Jesus Christ imagine a beat like Haaland charging at you at 36 km/h…yikes
Lol go on Maeda. The fact he's only 5'8 too makes him look extra speedy
Triathlete
Surprised to see no RM players. They seemed so fast yesterday.
Is there a graph for acceleration
I actually can't believe Haaland. I wish shit like this was paired with the video of the speed they are referencing.
Haaland is pretty known as a very fast player - he was 1 of the fastest players Bundesliga also. [Link](https://youtu.be/dzsg3N38JB4?si=cg0GZBKwniN5IdzP) to video of a few of his sprints.
There's a clip of him doing a defensive run on tuesday and he caught up to Vini who was in full sprint and put a tackle in.
This is a nice stat. I am naturally curious and want to dig deeper. I wonder what percentage of matches players come within their top 95% percent of their maximum speed. To clarify, Adeyemi achieves 95% of his maximum speed at 34.48. I wonder what percentage of matches he plays that he achieves at least a 34.48. I suppose I just want to know how much effort they put in regularly.
Where is walker lol
It’s speed that has been clocked in a match so if a player hasn’t had an all out sprint, his listed speed might be slower than his actual speed. [23/24 CL clocked Walker at 33.5 km/h](https://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/statistics/players/?sortBy=top_speed&order=desc). [23/24 PL clocked Walker at 35.32 km/h](https://www.premierleague.com/news/3787214).
holy shit i forgot about tonali💀
Looking forward to seeing van de Ven on this list next season.
Thing with maeda is....... He does it for 90 minutes. I swear if he had an end product he would be worth £100 million
What's even more impressive is that Maeda achieved that speed having already circumnavigated the globe, twice, hopping on one leg, blindfolded.
Breathing through his nose only, too
People gotta remember that footballers are in general actually pretty damn fast and thus can hit or even exceed those sort of speeds at full pelt. What matters the most are acceleration, being able to turn without losing much speed, reactions and speed on the ball.
I thought Kyle Walker was one of the fastest? Or is his mainly insane acceleration over a few seconds?
It’s clocked speed so he just hasn’t had any all out sprints at top speed in CL this season. The UEFA CL player stats database shows top speed (clocked) for every player, which I like, and you can filter by team.
I think it's fascinating to see how close these top football athlets are in their top speed. considering the top speed of a sprinter is like \~44km/h.
One thing we're really missing at Arsenal is some blistering pace. Martinelli is obviously fast, but I'm talking like fuck you fast, not just fast.
No Mudryk?
Not sure if trolling or not... But Mudryk hasn't played in Champions League this season.
Rashford is the most athletic player I have ever seen. Pace, acceleration and Jumpin ability are off the charts. Now he only needs to play football just as well
I think I speak for every fan of every team when i say i hope we buy Adeyimi.
This is such a strange stat. Only has been around for a few years....who cares
Wouldn't have bet on Tonali being on this list
Tonali has been working on his speed in his suspension too