Fastest players is it soccer or football?

[sports19]

What sports boasts the fastest sprinter basically in your opinion. I am not biased at all towards either sport I am a fan of both to be honest. My friends watch a lot of weekend soccer matches and some of the guys that play out on the wings are fast as hell! A couple of my friends told me players like Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, Cristiano Ronaldo, Obafemi Martins, Agbonlahor and a few others are really fast. When comparing them to nfl players I think the soccer players are faster and their is more to be said about their speed. The soccer players sprint all out all game and then jog inbetween where as football the plays last 6-7 seconds then 30 second break. With all things being equal I youtubed some videos of those guys I mentioned and they incredibly fast and a lot of the speed is done while dribbling a ball with their feet. Most of these really fast guys have little bulk in terms of their upper body which makes me wonder how important a big chest is for sprinting. What do you guys think and before you answer take a look at some of those guys and keep in mind the field is 120 yards long and not 100 yards like football and the field is about 15 yards wider as well.

[Willhu12]

Rugby has the fastest if your looking to go up to 100m (Habana, Nqwenya, Spies, Lomu, etc.), over shorter distances, I would guess Gridiron (seeing as the Americans/Canadians train over 40m).

In soccer and it's dervitives, control of the ball is far more important than speed and I rarely see soccer players training for speed over ball control. The same applies to BBall.

[madeira17]

Rugby has the fastest if your looking to go up to 100m (Habana, Nqwenya, Spies, Lomu, etc.), over shorter distances, I would guess Gridiron (seeing as the Americans/Canadians train over 40m).

In soccer and it's dervitives, control of the ball is far more important than speed and I rarely see soccer players training for speed over ball control. The same applies to BBall.

Sort of agree with what you are saying. A football player would never be able to run close to top speed while dribbling a soccer ball with some control though. A soccer player could pick up a ball and run with it better then a football player could do the soccer skill basically. So with that being said, I guess Rugby gets the best of both worlds award as it is a combination sort of. I have seen all those players OP mentioned and in terms of starting and stopping and turning on a dime I think soccer players are the fastest, only exception are some KR/PR in the nfl or Cornerbacks. Players like ronaldo, walcott and messi and especially ronaldo his feet are like missiles and when you couple his foot speed with his acceleration and top end speed I think he is the best all around choice. Even Usain bolt said he admires Ronaldo the most when he was on Manchester he watched every game. IN soccer you have to be able to accelerate and time every cut in and out because not only is your body moving at high speed but you have to be able to use finesse with the ball to make sure you keep it within your area. Rugby and football players just run with their bodies and a soccer player has a round ball to keep close.

[titdoctor]

Usian bolt is planning on playing soccer. So I guess soccer wins.

[xxtwistedxx]

Football is faster at short range. But for distances like 80+yds/m then ill give it to rugby.

[RAG3]

Football is faster at short range. But for distances like 80+yds/m then ill give it to rugby.

Agreed, Playing 5A football in Texas all I ever see/experience is fast ass people lighting eachother up. Pure Explosiveness + Speed = Football. Boring Running alot + Faking injuries = Soccer

[PCFootball24]

Agreed, Playing 5A football in Texas all I ever see/experience is fast ass people lighting eachother up. Pure Explosiveness + Speed = Football. Boring Running alot + Faking injuries = Soccer

Yeah, here it's all about speed. Football>rugby for short sprints

[daveshit]

I know that rugby players have amazing times on 100 meters. But soccer players also.
Obafemi Martins is the fastest soccer player. He gets waay below 11 seconds. Ivica Olic runs below 11 and theo Wallcot too.
But you cannot compare those types of athletes. Cause soccer players weigh around 160-180. They are really light.

[GoofyGoober]

football players are much larger than soccer players.

[xxtwistedxx]

I still would have to see lomu play nfl....6'6 260 and 10.5s 100m is just sick.

[Willhu12]

I know that rugby players have amazing times on 100 meters. But soccer players also.
Obafemi Martins is the fastest soccer player. He gets waay below 11 seconds. Ivica Olic runs below 11 and theo Wallcot too.
But you cannot compare those types of athletes. Cause soccer players weigh around 160-180. They are really light.

Jonah Lomu - 120kg, 6'5" - 100m time: 10.8s
Pierre Spies - 117kg, 6'4" - 100m time: 10.7s

I'm not taking anything away from soccer players, but Lomu must have weighed damn close to 20 stone back in 95' at age 18, and he got 10.8s. After having a serious liver problem, some very intense surgery and whatnot - he run's a 10.9s 15 years later.

Spies is just a genetic freak. He maintains sub7% BF at a weight of about 18+ stone. His explosive jump onto a 1.4m high box is just ridiculous if you ask me.

Habana runs something like a 10.4s and Ngwenya ran 10.5s in highschool, and he's obviously proved himself to be faster than Habana. Both of them must weigh around 14-16 stone.

[PurpleDrankNJ]

Vernon Davis is huge and is faster and jumps higher than most people in any sport. Also can't forget people like Robert Griffin of Baylor who before injury could have went to Olympics. He is a QB by the way.

[Dom_88]

Honestly I doubt Spies walks around at <7% bodyfat, IMO it's closer to 10%. unless those tests were done with a DEXA scan, then they're not completely accurate.

ngwenya got the drop on habana once, who had to turn and chase him, and everyone lost their minds. ngwenya is still VERY quick, but I think people are reading too much into that. it's not even like they had a one-on-one footrace!

it doesn't even matter, because tonderai chavhanga is faster than both;

[daveshit]

Jonah Lomu - 120kg, 6'5" - 100m time: 10.8s
Pierre Spies - 117kg, 6'4" - 100m time: 10.7s

I'm not taking anything away from soccer players, but Lomu must have weighed damn close to 20 stone back in 95' at age 18, and he got 10.8s. After having a serious liver problem, some very intense surgery and whatnot - he run's a 10.9s 15 years later.

Spies is just a genetic freak. He maintains sub7% BF at a weight of about 18+ stone. His explosive jump onto a 1.4m high box is just ridiculous if you ask me.

Habana runs something like a 10.4s and Ngwenya ran 10.5s in highschool, and he's obviously proved himself to be faster than Habana. Both of them must weigh around 14-16 stone.

That's why I said it's crazy to compare those athletes cause soccer players are very light.
I know one rugby player in personal who runs 10.5 on the field. He's around 100kg, but plays in third france league or sth. It proves that you need some skill.

my bad, his time was 10.79sec

[mudia]

it always amazes me to see people just take numbers they hear as gospel without actually thinking about it.

anyone who knows anything about sprinting understands the difficulty and technique involved in actually sprinting 100m. Just turn on to athletics and you will how hard it is to actually get sub 10.5s times and that is mainly sprinters who train for their whole lives to sprint and are of west African ancestry (something like 494 out of the top 500 sprinters are of west african descent).. you then hear a story that Lomu is 18 stone (or even 20 stone) and could run 10.8s at that weight...???

i will state it clearly here.. .that is without a shadow of a doubt a bull**** number. Most likely HAND timed with a pinch of salt. I am also very confident that Habana's time is hand timed as well. The reason I say this is that in 2010 there are less than 100 professional sprinters that have beaten that time AND there are less than 10 18yr olds that have bettered it also (18yrs old is the age all these rugby players allegedly did their times).. and these are sprinters that do nothing but sprint

It is amazing that so FEW of the rugby players actually have officially times (ie at competition or in trials) and then people come out with times that seem unlikely(although are very possible as shown in the NFL) and everybody believes them.

saying that.. the german magazine Spiegel did analysis of soccer players and showed that over a FLYING 40m Christiano Ronaldo averaged 33.6 KMH which was the fastest of all soccer players (in 09 i think). If we say that CRON can maintain that speed for 100m and has a FLYING start.. then he would do a 10.71... factor in standing start and fatigue.. it would be a miracle of ronaldo could get under 11s. So without a doubt the fastest rugby players Habana,chavhanga etc are faster than ronaldo and therefore ALL soccer players.

if you want to talk about speeds in a ball sport, then look no further than the NFL's open field positions (WR,RB,Safety,CB etc)... there have been several guys under 10s and many Sub 10.4 times all timed officially. There are very many Lomuesque players as well which is why Lomu would not have been anything more than "impressive" in the NFL in terms of running vs weight but nothing special.

now this man i find impressive... CALVIN JOHNSON... at 239lb "Johnson clocked a remarkable 4.33 second 40-yard dash, 10.23 second 100-meter sprint, recorded an 11-foot standing broad jump, and had a vertical leap of 43 inches.".. official times for NFL combine

LOL

[hulkamnaia]

it always amazes me to see people just take numbers they hear as gospel without actually thinking about it.

anyone who knows anything about sprinting understands the difficulty and technique involved in actually sprinting 100m. Just turn on to athletics and you will how hard it is to actually get sub 10.5s times and that is mainly sprinters who train for their whole lives to sprint and are of west African ancestry (something like 494 out of the top 500 sprinters are of west african descent).. you then hear a story that Lomu is 18 stone (or even 20 stone) and could run 18.8s at that weight...

i will state it clearly here.. .that is without a shadow of a doubt a bull**** number. Most likely HAND timed with a pinch of salt. I am also very confident that Habana's time is hand timed as well. The reason I say this is that in 2010 there are less than 100 professional sprinters that have beaten that time AND there are less than 10 18yr olds that have bettered it also (18yrs old is the age all these rugby players allegedly did their times).. and these are sprinters that do nothing but sprint

It is amazing that so FEW of the rugby players actually have officially times (ie at competition or in trials) and then people come out with times that seem unlikely(although are very possible as shown in the NFL) and everybody believes them.

saying that.. the german magazine Spiegel did analysis of soccer players and showed that over a FLYING 40m Christiano Ronaldo averaged 33.6 KMH which was the fastest of all soccer players (in 09 i think). If we say that CRON can maintain that speed for 100m and has a FLYING start.. then he would do a 10.71... factor in standing start and fatigue.. it would be a miracle of ronaldo could get under 11s. So without a doubt the fastest rugby players Habana,chavhanga etc are faster than ronaldo and therefore ALL soccer players.

if you want to talk about speeds in a ball sport, then look no further than the NFL's open field positions (WR,RB,Safety,CB etc)... there have been several guys under 10s and many Sub 10.4 times all timed officially. There are very many Lomuesque players as well which is why Lomu would not have been anything more than "impressive" in the NFL in terms of running vs weight but nothing special.

now this man i find impressive... CALVIN JOHNSON... at 239lb "Johnson clocked a remarkable 4.33 second 40-yard dash, 10.23 second 100-meter sprint, recorded an 11-foot standing broad jump, and had a vertical leap of 43 inches.".. official times for NFL combine

LOL

good post...u seem to know your stuff.there is a video of brazils Ronaldo being clocked at 36kmh on youtube,,,at the time he was at least a stone overweight.when in his prime and pre injury(16-24) he was the fastest non track athlete iv ever seen and im sure he would have reached a speed higher than 36 kmh....his acceleration was AMAZING....if you could check out the video of him doin 36 kmh and then search ronaldo running fast

[JimmySniper]

Gridiron easily. People saying rugby players are faster over 100m are probably wrong, that's still pretty short distance. Rugby has more of an edge with stamina, endurance and toughness.

[titomuheedo]

What sports boasts the fastest sprinter basically in your opinion. I am not biased at all towards either sport I am a fan of both to be honest. My friends watch a lot of weekend soccer matches and some of the guys that play out on the wings are fast as hell! A couple of my friends told me players like Theo Walcott, Aaron Lennon, Cristiano Ronaldo, Obafemi Martins, Agbonlahor and a few others are really fast. When comparing them to nfl players I think the soccer players are faster and their is more to be said about their speed. The soccer players sprint all out all game and then jog inbetween where as football the plays last 6-7 seconds then 30 second break. With all things being equal I youtubed some videos of those guys I mentioned and they incredibly fast and a lot of the speed is done while dribbling a ball with their feet. Most of these really fast guys have little bulk in terms of their upper body which makes me wonder how important a big chest is for sprinting. What do you guys think and before you answer take a look at some of those guys and keep in mind the field is 120 yards long and not 100 yards like football and the field is about 15 yards wider as well.

I think football.
Ive never seen a soccer player sprint while keeping control of the ball, it seems more long distance, endurance type.

Football players have to constantly sprint throughout the game.

[mudia]

good post...u seem to know your stuff.there is a video of brazils Ronaldo being clocked at 36kmh on youtube,,,at the time he was at least a stone overweight.when in his prime and pre injury(16-24) he was the fastest non track athlete iv ever seen and im sure he would have reached a speed higher than 36 kmh....his acceleration was AMAZING....if you could check out the video of him doin 36 kmh and then search ronaldo running fast

yes I agree, these guys may clock speeds like 36kmh (Bolt hit 43.9 Kmh @ olympics). R9 was a beast back in the day, not just fast but strong almost like a rugby player but still I find it hard to believe that there are any soccer players that can match the fastest rugby players (let alone NFL)... I find it hard to believe that many if ANY soccer player can actually run a genuine sub 11s.

you have to remember that so much of that time is the start out of the blocks which takes years of practice to get right and then the development into a full sprint over 100m (not easy). Running on a track takes technique...

it seems that the best data out there is for north American track stars... so i will have to use another NFL player as an example... Chris Johnson, a running back and a blisteringly quick player over 40 yards was the 13th fastest 100m runner in America when he was in high school (age 18). We all know that historically America has produced the best sprinters up until 2008.. yet his time was a 10.5s (official track meet time). and Chris Johnson is FAST ... this is why I don think Habana can run 10.4s and why I don't think any footballer can run sub 11s (CJ clocked 10.38s at uni btw). also remember the welsh international nigel walker who was a track athlete that took up rugby his times were allegedly around 10.3 (he was however built like a runner rather than a winger)

The fastest soccer player are FAST.. but people should not disregard those that have practiced running to compete at ... running. The nature of rugby as a sport means that faster people are more likely to make it on to the pitch than with soccer (and more so gridiron)

check out fastest players drafted into the NFL in 2k10
LINK - speedendurance.com/2010/02/21/2010-nfl-combine-predictions-5-of-the-fastest-men-nflcombine/

check out fastest players in college grid iron at the moment
LINK - heismanpundit.com/2010/06/24/the-fastest-players-in-college-football-2010/

these guys are so much faster than soccer players and I am inclined to believe that rugby players are closer to NFL players than soccer players are...

so i stand by Rugby (backs) faster than soccer (forwards) over 100m

ps.. sorry i have too few posts to link properly

[mudia]

Gridiron easily. People saying rugby players are faster over 100m are probably wrong, that's still pretty short distance. Rugby has more of an edge with stamina, endurance and toughness.

I played rugby for 15 years.. and I wouldn't dare say that rugby is tougher than gridiron... the game is played harder faster and stronger than rugby albeit in short bursts...

imagine.. average NFL career length is FOUR YEARS... despite only playing 16 games a season. Such is the wear and tear on your body DESPITE wearing 30lbs of padding and despite having millions of dollars invested in keeping them healthy.

Also a player gets knocked out once every 4 games in the NFL. LOL..when you take time in play into account that means that NFL has 5-10 times the number of KOs despite wearing sophisticated helmets.

quite simply the hardest hits in gridiron are MULTIPLE times harder than the hardest hits in rugby (the rules and gear dictate that fact)

it is strange that people seem to make assumptions about certain sports without any real reason.
people assume that rugby is tougher because no pads.. yet the evidence, factual as well as anecdotal shows otherwise..

people have this strange conception that NFL players can only run 40m.. despite hard facts of so many of them having world class 100m and 200m times...

i really find it strange...

the other day i read an article someone wrote where he stated that NFL players have little hand to eye coordination vs rugby players because sometimes when you see a fumble they struggle to pick it up... I was like wtf...

did he not think about the fact that because of helmets they wear it is hard to see a ball bouncing around all over the place by your feet

did he not think that the ball behaves differently to a rugby ball when on the floor

does he not understand that ball on the floor is not a normal passage of play

most importantly, has he not seen the catches that the "skill players" and the defensive backs and linebackers make in the nfl that rugby players would probably make 1 out of 10 times.. (ie running at full speed, 70mph ball thrown over your shoulder and you have to catch while wearing a helmet on and with someone in your face etc etc)

i really dont get why these assumptions are made

[JimmySniper]

I played rugby for 15 years.. and I wouldn't dare say that rugby is tougher than gridiron... the game is played harder faster and stronger than rugby albeit in short bursts...

By tougher I probably meant endurance again... My bad.

[apolloman]

Strong first post by mudia.

I was reading the first few post and was going to post something like what he just said. Nfl has the fastest players in the world, PERIOD!!!

Many of their skilled postions could of ran track but instead played football cause thats where the money/fame is. There is a ****load of guys in the NFL that are capable of 10.5 hunderds and better. Hell the NFL at one time had the worlds fastest man, and on numorous occasions had some of the fastest men in the world to grace its fields.

When will this forum learn that the NFL has freakishly insane athletes (no NFL nuthug)

[cesar24]

Football has the fastest athletes. Just off the top of my head: Chris Johnson, Michael Bennett (10.18), Trindon Holiday (10.07), Robert Griffin (NCAA 400H champ), Jeff Demps (10.01), Bob Hayes (old school), Xavier Carter (NCAA 100m and 400m champ), Jeremy Wariner (3 time gold-medalist, originally went to Baylor on football scholarship), Jacoby Ford (10.01), and C.J. Spiller (10.22).

And all these times were run in real meets that you can find easily.

[Steve2034]

Football has the faster guys, I agree.

If you look at soccer, players are trained to last long distance and have endurance.

[brunohill]

Have to agree with that.

[K114]

I really think its a difficult one to call, over 100m from what ive heard it seems theres no doubt that its american football but what about over 40m which is far more likely to happen in a game situation on the field/pitch. The physical requirement to go flat out over 40m is far less, so who would come out on top? it would definately be closer!

My best ever time over 100m is 11.03 when i was 22, im 5"7 and was round 145lbs at the time. When i was at college/uni on a biomechanical runway my time over 40m was just quicker 4 out of 5 times than a guy who's run 10.69. In my old team over 40m ive never beaten 2 lads. The 2 lads (both 18) have 100m times of 10.8, 11.2. The guy who's run 10.8 has unbelievable potential if only he was to push himself training.

Theres extremely quick players playing in respect to both sports. I cant remember if it was anelka or Henry had the option to run for france but decided to concentrate on football. I know Anelka was rummored to have run 10.4 when he was in his early yrs at arsenal. I know at one point JJ Johnson who sprinted for the usa played american football and his best 100m's is 9.96

So really i think its more a case of Acceleration and then speed endurance

Anyways thats my 2 cents to add fuel to the fire

[flipnch1nese7]

Let's put it this way, Jeff Demps at UF ran a 10.01 in HIGH SCHOOL and is not the fastest guy in college football.

Trindon Holliday graduated recently and was in the 9.9's, I believe 9.92, legit, fully automated timing.

Calvin Johnson may be one of the fastest men in the world.

Over 100m, football is king. The sheer amount of the genetic potential of the athletes who choose to play it is enormous, and that speed is in turn cultivated by the sport. It's not even a question, it's football.

[komdean]

If that is what you really think then you're dumb and know nothing about soccer. You probably just watch the World Cup and go out talking like you know stuff. Soccer players are definitely faster in short sprints like 10-15 yards specially the first couple steps because that's what's important. Second football players are wimps with no stamina they can't stay in for more than like 8 plays running routes on maybe 3\4ths of them with 35 seconds or more breaks in the middle. So Id like to see a football player keep up with a soccer player in a sub 5 minute mile then try to beat a soccer player in any sprint after a 1 minute rest. I doubt it it's possible.

Also football players dedicate themselves to training for speed and arent even faster than soccer players, but soccer you cant just be quick you have to have skill and field awareness and technical abilities while in football all you need is the ability to run and catch, and catching a ball isn't even hard specially since they get the help of specialized gloves to make the ball stick to their hands. And so what that you played 5a football in Texas there's no competition in that. The competition to get on a European first league team in unreal you have to compete with the worlds best athletes not just the US's athletes, which can't even make it in Europe because they play too soft.

So don't be so quick to say soccer players flop because in actuality football players are low level atheltes with small skill sets and no stamina. They can't succeed outside of their own sport unless they played other sports growing up, but soccer players easily keep up with most other sports. Also the hours put in to be a football player don't compare to the hours needed for soccer and 75% of the hours that the football players are "training" is standing around waiting for the next play taking long rests between sets of lifting and breaks, but soccer is continuous training

[komdean]

Oh and also I forgot to mention that a soccer player just ran a 1:56 10 meter dash from a stand which was reportedly not his best time. The best nfl 10 YARD dash is a 1.40 from a launch. Oh and did I forget to mention that the soccer player was 18 and the football player was 23... Soo don't be so quick to judge.

[S4life]

sure there are some outliers in soccer, but american football players are just naturally faster and better sprinters.. The Uni football players in my town (especially running backs) join the varsity track team in the spring.. soccer players wouldn't stand a chance