How fast would the average professional soccer player run?

Most people on this thread are way underestimating soccer players in my opinion. Especially for a professional. In my high school soccer players would run 5 miles several times per week. I went to a DIII college, and so there was a vast range of ability, but I remember our tennis team would run mile time trials on the track fairly regularly and one of the guys was also on the soccer team and would run about 5:15. But I also knew another guy on the team who ran 10:10 for two miles, and one year a guy from the soccer team came out randomly (was convinced by a runner at a party to try to break 5) to an all comer's meet we hosted and ran 5:00. That's all with no additional training, and those are DIII guys, none of whom were the stars, and not the faster guys on the team.

My guesses would be on average for a professional soccer player with no track specific training:

400: 51

800: 1:58

mile: 4:35-4:40

two mile: 10:00-10:20

5k: 16:40-17:00

10k: 35:30-36:00

I think some guys would be slower, but some also significantly faster. I wouldn't be surprised to find guys who could run 1:52 or break 4:20. They are well trained athletes and soccer is reasonably good preparation for middle distance.

In 8th grade some of the faster kids who played soccer could run 5:20-5:30 in gym class. None of these guys were even all-state or anything and they didn't do track. You take a guy who is 8-10 years old and worlds better and I see no reason why 4:45 shouldn't be expected.

first of all, those are not my times.. second, i do not consider those times fast. these are my ACTUAL PRs: 800-2:17; 1600- 4:52; 3200-10:24; 5k(xc)- 17:22. i have never ran a 10k since im only a freshman in high school. i admit that im not fast.

Who are YOU to be making an assumption without any logic to base it off of????? I hate it when people do that...

yeah this is also a debate that needs to be broken down by positions

And you are also overestimating their ability to run distances. With some training maybe they'd run some alright 5k's, but I think if you went through division 1 soccer players about 80% of them would not break 20 in a 5k. There is a huge difference between running repetitive sprints with rest that add up to 6-10 miles per game or practice and running 6-10 miles a day. I agree that 400 and 800 would be the best events though for them to run

center mids - dead after 300

outside mids - 800 runners

forwards - depending on who probably 400-600

backs - 400-800 (can't be lazy like forwards and stop running after a play ends, so I give them an advantage on endurance)

and yes I played soccer, I run in college but I could have played mid-level D1 so I'm not just throwing random things out there without basis

Thedel wrote:

hungry runner wrote:

woops i forgot the mile and the 5k. 5:40 for a mile. 18:30 for 5k

Not even close, my school is a decent soccer school...we usually win sectionals, and sometimes groups, and they had 5 guys run faster than 5:20. We just had one soccer/wresting kid come out for spring track and within two weeks he ran 10:50 and 4:53

We were talking aboput pro´s!

Yeah, I think most of you are underestimating the ability of pro soccer players at the shorter distances. Obviously it depends on the position of the player, but I think most outside midfielders, outside fullbacks, and most forwards would do very well at the 800, run a good mile, and then get progressively worse as the distance increases.

You have to remember that in the rest of the world the best athletes are probably playing soccer. Their training includes some distance running, but is mostly shorter and sprint related. I'd guess that a large percentage of the players at the aforementioned positions would be under 2:00 in the 800, with some in the lower 1:50s just based off of natural talent and some "soccer" running/training. For the mile times, I would guess a good portion of mids and outside backs around the 4:30s - 4:50s. The longer distances would see them get slower and slower. Also, I think the center mids and center backs who don't do as much running would be a little worse.

I was always a soccer player until my junior year in high school, and with no xc/track experience ran a 2:02 800m my first time out and a 52s 400m the same day. I have some talent and went on to run DI track, but I'm not a world class athlete. These guys like Cristiano Ronaldo are very, very fast at short distance (40 - 50 yard sprints) and I would bet could run a nasty 400m and 800m with some training.

But who really knows. It would be sweet to see the best soccer players in the world suit up for a track meet during the middle of their season.

On this post I focused on the mile, guessing about 4:25 average not counting the long-suffering goalies :)

2:10, sub 5, 18:30

They're not pro soccer players because of their running abilities...

My high school soccer team, first day of tryouts, required everyone on both JV and Varsity, goalkeepers included, to complete a 2 mile run in 13 minutes.

This was on the track in the middle of an east coast summer.

If you didn't complete you weren't cut from the team automatically, but had to run it every day until you did it in 13 minutes.

Keep in mind there were probably 60 people trying out each year for like 40 total slots. I seem to remember like 80% of the people trying out did it on the first time.

I also seem to remember some guy who played for a good D1 college team telling me that everyone on the team had to complete a 5 mile run in 30 minutes to make the team, but I might be slighly off here.

Based on this I'd say 2:10 800M, 4:45 mile, 17:30 5k, 40 minute 8k.

senile wrote:

2:10, sub 5, 18:30

They're not pro soccer players because of their running abilities...

Okay, but players not counting goalies average 7 miles a game, some as much as 9.5 miles. Even with the stopping and starting, that's a heck of a lot of running.

It's a unique ability to be able to sprint quickly, and to keep doing it for hours. The big question is, how does that kind of training and fitness translate to a mile?

For a World Cup caliber athlete, I really, REALLY doubt any of them would be slower than 5 minutes. To think the average skinny, pubescent 14 year-old runner (who may not even yet be running more than 7 miles in a single day) could beat the average Pro soccer athlete over a mile just doesn't compute.

I got one vote on FB for 4:07.5, quite the bold claim!

If your 8th graders are running 5:20 miles you better measure your track.

"Running Times for Boys - A 12-year-old boy who can complete a 1-mile run in eight minutes and 40 seconds sits at about the 50th percentile in comparison to other boys his age. Any time faster than 8:40 would be considered a good time, since it puts the boy in the top half of his age class. If the boy runs the mile a minute faster, coming in at about seven minutes and 40 seconds, he rises to the 75th percentile. The best mile time a 12-year-old boy could expect is six minutes, which would put him in the 100th percentile."

http://www.livestrong.com/article/549735-good-mile-time-for-a-twelve-year-old/

I played jv basketball and ran a 2:05 800. Charles Barkley was a really good basketball player(he played in the nba!)so he can probably run 1:50!

I am not sure a majority of pro soccer players would be better at distance than 200/400. Some would of course, but I think a lot would have 400 or less as their best event.

Looking at the German men soccer team, 2014, most of the German men team appeared to be sub-10 two milers. Two high school T&F teammates of mine that played fall soccer were sub-2:05 800 metres & sub-10:10 3200 metres guys. I talked to a women on USA national team a couple years ago, she said most of the girls were sub-11:30 two milers.

Graham Rush is a former pro soccer player in the UK who runs about a 14 minute 5k. Probably lots more out there like him.

1: Theo Walcott 100m 10.3s

2: Cristiano Ronaldo 100m 10.63s

3: Gabriel Agbonlahor 100m 10.98s

4: Javier Hernandez 100m 11.08s

5: Arjen Robben 100m 11.34s

6: Gareth Bale 100m 11.39s

7: Antonio Valencia 100m 11.45s

8: Robin Van Persie 100m 11.54s

9: Alexis Sanchez 100m 11.55s

10: Gonzalo Higuain 100m 11.61s

Robben looks faster than that. He had the most dangerous burst in world soccer during the 2010 and 14 WC tournaments.

Others in contention include Van Gobbel (NL), Caniggia (ARG).

For deano's benefit, Malcolm MacDonald was timed at 10.9 (ht) during a 1970s UK Superstars competition.

Gareth Bale also ran 4:08 for 1500m at 15 and was pretty good at XC (he ran the 100m in 11.4 at a similar age). Could have been a decent runner, but £375,000 a week is probably worth more than a quick mile time...

UltraDillo wrote:

6: Gareth Bale 100m 11.39s

10.98/22.2/49.0 aren't bad for a 14 year old.

Top midfielders should be able to run