Would any PL players be able to run 100m in under 10 secs?

Muahahaha

I'm hoping some of the older posters here might be able to jog my memory on this. I think it was back in the late 1980s ITV had the rights to the FA Cup or Littlewoods Cup. As part of their coverage they ran a competition where the fastest players on each team would compete in a 100m sprint before the game kicked off. The sprint race was on grass and they ran in their football boots. I can't for the life of me remember who won the thing but as far as I remember he covered 100m in just over 11 seconds which is pretty fast given it's on grass and he was wearing football boots.

To put it in perspective at the time the world record for 100m was held by Carl Lewis with a time of 9.93 seconds. I found it fascinating that a footballer, running on grass and in football boots was only just over a second slower than the fastest man in the world at the time. Got me wondering if the footballer had of trained as a sprinter and developed his body to sprint he might have been up there with the best, I certainly can't remember him being any great shakes as a footballer.

Anyway these days man can run even faster than ever, Usain Bolt has the world record down to 9.58 seconds and some believe he might yet be the first person ever to do it in under 9 seconds. So too has football gotten much faster since the 1980s so my question is this - if given the right footwear and an Olympic standard track then which players in the Premier Leagie do you think could cover 100m in under ten seconds ?

I'll kick it off by saying Raheem Sterling. Perhaps he may not be under the 10 seconds right now, I reckon he could do a 10.5 at the moment. But when he hits his physical peak (for sprinting) at around 24 or 25 years of age I'd say he'd be well able to cover 100m in under 10 seconds.

Harry Palmr

Tiago Ilori (ex Sporting now Liverpool) beat Ronaldos sprint time at when at Sporting Lisbon, I've only seen a few glimpses in games on loan but he certainly looks damned quick

NIMAN

To the original question, I'd say NO.

luckyboy

I think the OP may be referring to ex-Coventry City player John Williams aka "The Flying Postman" ...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(footballer_born_1968)

Professional Griefer

What about Sterling? Hes pretty quick, gotta be one of the fastest in the league.

nvm, you said him.

Bobby Baccala

Mertesacker

franglan

I don't think so, when you get to that type of time the difference between running a 10.50s and 10.00s 100 metres is huge. Even with Sterling's pace I not convinced he could run anywhere near a 10 second 100m metres (even if he was born in Jamaica!)

JPA

To go under 10 seconds a player would need to train professionally as a sprinter.

Assuming they did I would have said Agbonlahor once upon a time but he's gone too bulky.

Talib Fiasco

Ryo Miyaichi is well worth a mention...probably will get faster too as he gets a little older

Muahahaha

luckyboy wrote: »

I think the OP may be referring to ex-Coventry City player John Williams aka "The Flying Postman" ...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(footballer_born_1968)

Yeah that's the lad. And it was 11.49 seconds so at around that time he was 1.57 seconds slower than Carl Lewis. However he was running on grass and in football boots. Impossible to say how much time that disadvantage would have cost him, likely hundredths of a second but given the right gear I'd hazard a guess he could have done it in 10.7 to 10.9 seconds. Still a full second off Carl Lewis but pretty impressive for someone whose body isn't trained to be a sprinter. And he could deliver post too !

Muahahaha

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Tiago Ilori (ex Sporting now Liverpool) beat Ronaldos sprint time at when at Sporting Lisbon, I've only seen a few glimpses in games on loan but he certainly looks damned quick

Any ideas what times Ronaldo & Illoro were running ? Also were they in boots or on a proper track with spiked shoes ?

Hank Scorpio

Walcott might have a shout

Harry Palmr

Muahahaha wrote: »

Any ideas what times Ronaldo & Illoro were running ? Also were they in boots or on a proper track with spiked shoes ?

Sadly no, I have no idea about the conditions of the sprint - I imagine it wa rather less than 100m as well - lets face it in football you really only need 5-10 meters to lose your man, short repeated sprints.

greendom

nuxxx wrote: »

Walcott might have a shout

Bellerin beat his record for the 40 metres at Arsenal this week.

Will I Amnt

Not a hope IMO. A half decent sprinter will be quicker than the fastest footballers.

EuropeanSon

Not much chance, not without at least a few years of sprint-focused training. Fewer than 100 people have EVER ran 100m in less than 10s.

And in response to another thing mentioned in the OP - nobody with a clue thinks Bolt could run anywhere near 9 flat, it's such a colossal difference that I would confidently say that he himself never once gave it the slightest thought as being possible.

retalivity

I am sure I rem seeing something when M Owen burst on the scene that he was clocked at 10.4 over 100m.
This was in the days of club call and teletext so could be total sh1te

enfant terrible

The footballers technique would be rubbish compared to a sprinter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqEj-Qyg6U

Talib Fiasco

enfant terrible wrote: »

The footballers technique would be rubbish compared to a sprinter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZqEj-Qyg6U

Ronaldo's running technique is quite unique in itself though...that whole series is a great watch.

5starpool

No chance. A footballer might cover 100m in less tan 10 secs in a flying start, but not from a sprinters block, even in proper sprinting gear.

AllGunsBlazing

nuxxx wrote: »

Walcott might have a shout

Probably the most capable. Just so long as his hamstrings didn't explode before the finish line.

wally79

This lad might do it

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/496300/Manchester-United-Player-Breaks-100m-Record-Olympic-Darren-Campbell

wally79

This lad might do it

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/496300/Manchester-United-Player-Breaks-100m-Record-Olympic-Darren-Campbell

Muahahaha

enfant terrible wrote: »

The footballers technique would be rubbish compared to a sprinter

Great vid, really explains the differences in technique between footballers and sprinters well. You could see Ronaldo's arms flailing all over the place compared to the Spanish 100m champion. Still though Ronaldo was only .3 of a second behind him. I'd say if Ronaldo had a sprinters training and technique down he could possibly beat the Spanish 100m record. Not gonna happen of course, talking years of training here.

GreeBo

11s isn't that impressive, kids can do it in 12s.
Add mentioned above, it only gets interesting under 10s, Jonah lomu could do under 11 and he was over 18 stone.

enfant terrible

Muahahaha wrote: »

enfant terrible wrote: »

The footballers technique would be rubbish compared to a sprinter

Great vid, really explains the differences in technique between footballers and sprinters well. You could see Ronaldo's arms flailing all over the place compared to the Spanish 100m champion. Still though Ronaldo was only .3 of a second behind him. I'd say if Ronaldo had a sprinters training and technique down he could possibly beat the Spanish 100m record. Not gonna happen of course, talking years of training here.

From the comments to that video someone said

" 0,3 s difference in 25m is alot. 25m x 4 = 100m
0,3 x 4 = 1,2s he runs a 10.40? so that means Ronaldo only runs a 11.60"

Y2KBOS86

Alot of footballers have the potential to run 100m in 10 flat with a few years training, but no one playing week to week can get near that time.

Adam Gemili has been training a few years now and has only this year got near 10 flat, he is very talented.

Darren Campbell reckons any young male that can do 100m in around 11 secs without sprint training has the potential to run near 10 secs.

The likes of Walcott, Sterling mentioned already are not those young males he is talking about either.

Adebayor not famed for his raw pace beat Walcott by a decent margin when they did a 100m sprint at Arsenal doing it in 11.40.

Muahahaha

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Not much chance, not without at least a few years of sprint-focused training. Fewer than 100 people have EVER ran 100m in less than 10s.

And in response to another thing mentioned in the OP - nobody with a clue thinks Bolt could run anywhere near 9 flat, it's such a colossal difference that I would confidently say that he himself never once gave it the slightest thought as being possible.

Nah I don't believe Bolt or anyone for that matter can crack the 9 second barrier for 100m. If it ever happened in my lifetime I'd be completely astonished.

Nonetheless I still think Bolt has more in the tank. At the Beijing Olympics he set a world record time of 9.63 but as he was about to cross the line he was looking around and practically celebrating he was that far ahead of the chasing pack. I reckon if he had of pushed that one last stride he might have got a 9.45-9.5 second record. Then I think he did something similar at the London Olympics, pulled up short when he had the race run. The apparent story at the time was he was competing in some invitational event a couple of weeks later and there was some mammouth cash bonus if he could set a world record. Not sure if it was true or not because he never broke the record at it.

5starpool

enfant terrible wrote: »

From the comments to that video someone said

" 0,3 s difference in 25m is alot. 25m x 4 = 100m
0,3 x 4 = 1,2s he runs a 10.40? so that means Ronaldo only runs a 11.60"

The first 1/4 of a race is the slowest as they are starting from still, so it's not right to just multiply the time by 4 to get the time for 100m.

Kirby

Running at pace isn't nearly as important as running at pace while controlling the ball.

There have been some seriously quick footballers in a dead sprint throughout the years but not many were nearly as fast while dribbling and that's the truly devastating skill.

I remember a while back, 4 or 5 years maybe......that they clocked Agbonlahor as the fastest player in the league but there were a bunch of players with a faster dribbling speed than him as once he had to control the ball, he slowed down a good bit. Aaron Lennon and Arjen Robben for example, are both lightning even with the ball at their feet.

Even so, the trained sprinter will always come out on top. Footballers have hundreds of things they need to train on, so I doubt a professional will ever run it in under 10 seconds.

enfant terrible

5starpool wrote: »

The first 1/4 of a race is the slowest as they are starting from still, so it's not right to just multiply the time by 4 to get the time for 100m.

I don't know much about sprinting, would you think Ronaldo would keep pace with the professional sprinter for the rest of the 100m with that technique?

Y2KBOS86

enfant terrible wrote: »

I don't know much about sprinting, would you think Ronaldo would keep pace with the professional sprinter for the rest of the 100m with that technique?

Ronaldo has awful technique for a sprinter in that video he looks like he hits his Max speed at 20 metres, a sprinter is still accelerating up to 70 metres.

Bale has far better technique for that distance

Muahahaha

enfant terrible wrote: »

I don't know much about sprinting, would you think Ronaldo would keep pace with the professional sprinter for the rest of the 100m with that technique?

Not with that technique he couldn't, his arms were all over the place and he was running side to side, making himself less aerodynamic and increasing wind resistance more than what is necessary. But you can see in the vid the sprinter has a stride distance of 2.5m whereas Ronaldo was only 1.7m, also the sprinter puts his knees really high to get greater stride lengths. I'm sure if Ronaldo at least got his strides up he could take 0.1 sec off that 0.3 deficit he had over the sprinter over the 25m race.

I wonder if Ronaldo had of went down the sprinting route at the age of 16 could he by now have cracked the 10 second barrier? Maybe, maybe not. Even if he could the Portugese 100m record is still 9.86 so he likely wouldn't even be Portugals fastest man. Probably for the best he stuck with the football :pac:

Richard Hillman

Chris Johnson is the fastest ever NFL player at the Combine 4.24 over 40 yards. His 100m personal best is 10.38. He could have probably gone faster if he stuck to sprinting. I dont think any footballer could get near that. A lot of American athletes are multi sport athletes right up to finishing college before they stick to one sport. Footballers tend to give up any other sports by 16.

It will probably happen eventually but it will be a long time.

artanevilla

With a bit of sprint training I reckon Gabby Agbonlahor could do it.

Y2KBOS86

artanevilla wrote: »

With a bit of sprint training I reckon Gabby Agbonlahor could do it.

Years of training more like.

Even then he would not hit 10 or under.

Only 5 English men have ever ran 10 or under.

artanevilla

His record is 10.98 without training. Also he's Anglo Scotch Nigerian so.....

cournioni

Antonio Valencia... until somebody makes him turn inside and pass the ball backwards.

GavRedKing

Adam Gemili, I assume hes being mentioned already, used to be a footballer for Chelsea youths.

His quickest 100m times is very cloe to 10secs and he won a silver emdal at the Commonwealth games with a 10.10 time but AFAIK he was training in athletics as well as football and decided to take up sprinting full time.

Also, I dont think even Usain Bolt will run under or close to 9secs flat, to get the record down from 9.76 to 9.58 was huge to shave 1/2 a second off it would be out of this world.

Kimbot

Found these links:

http://www.givemesport.com/347454-world-football-fastest-100m-sprinters

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/worlds-fastest-footballers-gareth-bale-3423141

No sterling on any of those lists which is strange.

Vinz Mesrine

Can anyone remember that video of Ronaldo from a few years ago which had him sprint one end of the pitch to another in about 10 secs?

GavRedKing

Vinz Mesrine wrote: »

Can anyone remember that video of Ronaldo from a few years ago which had him sprint one end of the pitch to another in about 10 secs?

Think that was the team goal inthe UCL against Arsenal he ran from box to box in about 10secs alright before scoring from a Rooney pass AFAIK.

Vinz Mesrine

GavRedKing wrote: »

Think that was the team goal inthe UCL against Arsenal he ran from box to box in about 10secs alright before scoring from a Rooney pass AFAIK.

Just found it on YouTube but can't link from my phone.

It was against Atheltic, 96m in 10 seconds

GavRedKing

Anyone remember Dider Agathe for Celtic? All that lad had was pace, seemed to be able to square a fella up, knock it past him by about 10 yards and beat him for pace. It was his one redeeming skill and he was bloody quick.

Mitch Connor

5starpool wrote: »

No chance. A footballer might cover 100m in less tan 10 secs in a flying start, but not from a sprinters block, even in proper sprinting gear.

a United youth teamer ran 100m in 10.99 second about a week ago - a proper 100m race; he is 15, and it was also he first ever competitive race.

As he gets older, I would imagine he would have a chance of getting close to 10 seconds in proper sprinter conditions - proper running track and spikes. Running on a football pitch would be far slower, as it takes more energy to run on a grass surface than a proper sprinting surface (or tarmac).

I would also say the kid is unlikely to be unique - given proper 100m running conditions I'd say there has to be a footballer who could do it.

Richard Hillman

I really think people are underestimating what it takes to run even close to 10 seconds. I dont even think there is a player that can run under 10.5. I would not say there is even a player in the NFL that could run under 10.5 at this moment in time.

advertsfox

Robben nearly can...

Robben also smashed his previous record, attained in Bayern Munich colours, of 30.7km/h. Given the speeds recorded by Robben in his scoring of the fifth goal, he would have run the 100m in 10.28 seconds. He did this with the ball under control and after 80 minutes of play.

http://www.espnfc.com/fifa-world-cup/story/1888364/arjen-robben-of-netherlands-becomes-worlds-fastest-player

Vinz Mesrine

Richard Hillman wrote: »

I really think people are underestimating what it takes to run even close to 10 seconds. I dont even think there is a player that can run under 10.5. I would not say there is even a player in the NFL that could run under 10.5 at this moment in time.

NFL players wouldn't need to do 100m, they are all about short bursts hence their 40 yard dash tests.

Carlin Isles is the only non sprinter who I think would get close but that's only because he was a sprinter as a kid and in college AFAIK.

Hulk Hands

There's a massive difference between acceleration like say Sterling and flat out speed. There's an article in Gary Pallisters book where Fergie set up sprints (100m iirc) and Pallister whipped everyone. Same guy who Owen skipped away from with ease on one occasion

DoctorGonzo08

Fastest Sprinter is supposed to be Marvell Wynne who did it in 10.39 secs

Source: http://www.givemesport.com/347454-world-football-fastest-100m-sprinters

As for the fastest players in the world, according to FIFA Calculations, Antonio Valencia is! :eek:

Top 10 are listed as follows (km/h):
1. Antonio Valencia (35.1)
2. Gareth Bale (34.7)
3. Aaron Lennon (33.8)
4. Cristiano Ronaldo (33.6)
5. Theo Walcott (32.7)
6. Lionel messi (32.5)
7. Wayne Rooney (31.2)
8. Frank Ribery (30.7)
9. Arjen Robben (30.4)
10. Alex Sanchex (30.1)

Source: http://www.givemesport.com/416458-top-10-fastest-footballers-in-world-football#./416458-top-10-fastest-footballers-in-world-football?&_suid=140801212241905728376122593064

RayCun

I believe Robben was a sprinter when he was younger, competed over 400m I'm told