I'm sure this has been posted before, but I'm curious what people think now. He is known to have a lower work rate than many players and has been moving around 8km per match. I'm not sure how much that means. I think he could still probably hit around high 18:xx for a 5k if he didn't have much notice. He is an elite athlete and has the look of a good runner
Nobody cares. These how fast can a soccer play run threads are so stupid.
This is kind of how I feel about the Lebron mile stuff. Off of just training for their sport, I would say they would be able to run fast but not in that sub-elite range (sub-16 for Messi, sub-5 for Lebron) without more dedicated training. I think soccer players would be run better from 800-3k. Some of them would do best 400 & under. I could see Messi holding 6:00 pace for 5k. Can't really see 5-flat if he was gonna do it next week.
Some footballers would make excellent runners (mostly long sprints and mid-distance, but a few would be good at long distance)
All footballers are substantially better than the general population at distance running
Among professional footballers, there is very little correlation between football and running ability. The few who would make talented distance runners are not necessarily the best at football.
Due to selection bias, the published times you see are generally from the fastest footballers (at any given level), so Messi or anyone else whose times you don't know is probably slower.
I've started calling this "superhero syndrome", where people believe that just because someone is the best at one very big thing, they are also the best at everything else, the smartest, the mentally toughest, etc. etc. Superheroes may be superior beings, but for the rest of us it's more complicated than that. Messi is the best at football because he has myriad elite talents that together with decades of specific training and experience make him uniquely suited for football.
What is the opposite of superhero syndrome called? Someone ran a 5 minute mile in high school so they think Messi can't break 20 minutes in a 5k?
Football players might cover 10K in a match but it is all broken up and there is no continuous running (unless they do sustained running during training which I doubt). Most of them will be better at shorter distances compared to 5K. Mbappe would probably run 17 minutes given his sprinting ability and youth, but I doubt messi would do that. Maybe close.
Just silly. As I said, if I can run an untrained 5k at 50 years old in under 18 minutes, I could have run an untrained one in 16:30 at 35. I ran low 15s at 35 and was training about 5 hours per week. Messi trains 5 hours per day.
you're saying if you had never run a day in your life youcould have woke up at age 35 and ran a 5k @ 5:19 pace... ? If that's so then why are there so many local road races where not a single participant runs 16:30 or better? Surely one of them actually trained?
Prob between 15 high to 16 mid. Think about it: tons of mediocre soccer players who also do XC/TF have similar PRs. It wouldn’t be out of the question for him to break 16 as a world class athlete, even with lack of notice
Is there a correlation between level of play in soccer and distance running ability? I doubt it.
There have been quite a few studies showing that within a given soccer league, the higher ranked teams tend to have a higher average VO2max. Further studies have shown when testing individual players form different tier leagues (A- best, B - middle, C- lower) the only significant difference between players in each league was their Velocity at Lactate Threshold.
I'm a former DI college soccer player. On the first day of preseason camp, we would always have a fitness test and it was expected that we run three miles in under 18 minutes. There have been a few other threads on the fitness of soccer players before. There, it was noted that Scott McTominay, a midfielder for Manchester United and Scotland, ran a 5k in 16:01 in April 2020 during the Covid lockdown. Likewise, Ross Barkley reportedly ran a 5k in 16:11, Harry Maguire in 17:46. I don't think it's a stretch to say that Messi is fitter than McTominay or Barkley and could run somewhere around 15:45 (or maybe even faster).
ross barkley ran a 16:11 5k but it took him 1 hour to do it
I'm sure this has been posted before, but I'm curious what people think now. He is known to have a lower work rate than many players and has been moving around 8km per match. I'm not sure how much that means. I think he could still probably hit around high 18:xx for a 5k if he didn't have much notice. He is an elite athlete and has the look of a good runner
Would think he would be ok in a 5k but his ideal distance is probably an 800. He could likely pop a 1:52-54 right now
No way any active football player is able to run under 2 minutes for the open 800m. Their training is focused in short sprints, most of them no longer than 20m. Running under 2,00 requires some specific training. Also, Messi has short legs compared to his upper body, ideal to quicky change directions while sprinting but horrible for middle/long distance running
Prob between 15 high to 16 mid. Think about it: tons of mediocre soccer players who also do XC/TF have similar PRs. It wouldn’t be out of the question for him to break 16 as a world class athlete, even with lack of notice
Letsrunners weirdly overestimate distance running abilities of athletes in other sports just based on their general fitness. Running a 16’ 5K takes some training, and it’s entirely possible to be able to walk 85% of the time interspersed by rapid short sprints like Messi does on field without being aerobically strong enough to run a fast 5K.
Kind of like asking how well Kipchoge would do in a World Cup soccer match. My guess: not too good.
To give y'all an idea about soccer specific fitness training: set the treadmill to 12mph and 12%, sprint for 20 seconds then jump off for 40, and repeat the cycle 15 times. It'll get you fit for sure, but nowhere near the specificity you need for a 15-16-minute 5k.
In most of the world, the people with the most distance running ability play soccer.
The fastest people in the gym class mile were soccer players
Soccer is incredibly cardiovascularly demanding. Doesn't matter that they're doing some walking when they're fully sprinting much of the time
These guys have more athleticism in their pinkies than 90% of the posters in this thread
There were guys who came off the high school soccer team and easily broke 18:00
Messi is so fit I have absolutely zero doubt he would break 17:00
Bunch of delusional people with big egos in this thread who run an hour a day and think that makes them light years better than the world's most gifted athletes playing the most cardiovascularly demanding major sport. They would absolutely murder 99% of you in running with 6 months of training
The reason that local road races are so slow is because thousands of top college runners hang it up after college. Check how many sub 14 guys run a 5k road race at 35. Check how many sub 15 guys run a 5k road race at 35. I ran 16:30 at 14 years the 1st week of xc practice. I hadn't run before. You think a well trained elite athlete would be slower?
The reason that local road races are so slow is because thousands of top college runners hang it up after college. Check how many sub 14 guys run a 5k road race at 35. Check how many sub 15 guys run a 5k road race at 35. I ran 16:30 at 14 years the 1st week of xc practice. I hadn't run before. You think a well trained elite athlete would be slower?
Take a look at the fastest freshmen boys cross country runners in every state as well as links to full rankings list of fastest times among freshmen in each state (as of September 19th).
Many whole states did not have a single freshman who ran 16:30 "the 1st week of xc practice". I will bet you most of the guys on that list had run in middle school too. We are talking a pool of probably 70,000 freshman for the country. On a state level, Ohio probably has what, 2,500 high school freshman runners a year? And only one of them ran 16:29 "the 1st week of xc practice". That's the top .04%(.0004, 1/2500) of freshman runners who are running 16:30 "the 1st week of xc practice". I bet he didn't run in middle school either.
