Could most elite soccer players easily run a sub-20 5k?

Toasted wrote:

When i was 14 years old my first xc race, i ran 20:02 an i had been running for just a couple weeks, those soccer players could absolutely run sub 18, sub 17, and MAYBE sub 16

This ^ sounds about right.

Most under 18. The best under 16.

Hitmen wrote:

Easily!! Under 20 is very slow. We had a soccer player on my high school team that had never run track and ran 10:00 for 3200m with no training.

I would guess that most of the best could run under 16-16:30.

If a high school soccer player with no training could run 10 for 3200m, then likely the pros could run, what, maybe 11 or 12 minute 5k's? So likely most soccer players could easily be world record holders. They just don't know it. Silly.

This thread has turned ludicrous.

Under 20 minutes? Definitely many could.

None or very very few would be under 16 minutes.

10 minute 3200, so he's, what, a 4:30 miler with no training? silly.

spot on wrote:

copa mundial wrote:

I'm always amazed about the overestimation of soccer players distance running abilities. I've tested hundreds of professional players. Not the highest leaque but they are still considered professionals and have no job besides playing.

The best players I'v ever tested could run in the 18:00 min region. Considering a squad of 25-30 players, then maybe 3 would run between 18:00- 19:00, 5 between 19:00- 20:00, 10 between 20:00-21:00, and the rest including goalkeppers up to 23-24 min.

Mostly they hate distance running.

+1

Kevin Keegan England's most famous player of the 70s ran the first Great North Run in 1981. Over the years some have claimed he ran as fast as 1:15 or so. He actually ran 1:26:23 and he was one of the fittest players.

^^^this

i trained with soccer players

some of the best are good sprinters but useless over 5k

they would average maybe 20 minutes imo

You might be underestimating the requirements for sub 16 my friend. Or even soccer player's endurance for that matter. Which is weird for a guy who ran such a fast mile.

Trust me pretty much no one would run under 17 minutes even if their lives depended on it.

Talent? Yes, soccer is packed with youngsters who don't imagine the huge running talent they have because $ is all they think about, which is fine i might add.

Happening without training for it? Maybe 20 in the whole soccer world, and even then 16 high.

Grant Fisher is a freak by the way, maybe the only exception who would be sub 16 while in soccer, which he would have to be really dumb not to notice the obvious talent. Heck maybe he was a s**tty player to start with.

Nice mile time by the way i'm serious :).

Roonaldo wrote:

I watch a lot of English Premier League Soccer and was wondering....These guys are obviously in great overall shape and run a lot in training and games. Could the average elite player easily knock out a sub-20 5k? Faster?

you must keep in mind that the english premier league players dont focus much on endurance, yes they can easily run a 5k under 20 minutes, but not to the best of their ability because first of all, they are mainly sprinters so 5k is not their best event, and secondly they dont train to run 5k under xx:yy minutes.

Not quite completely elite, but data below suggests that right around 21 minutes might be average for a soccer player 5K (based on the 12-minute all-out test ... the VO2 max would suggest something more in the 17-19 minute range, but that's not supported by only running around 3000m in 12 minutes)http://www.scienceofsocceronline.com/2013/02/how-did-cooper-test-become-part-of.html

Eight years later, Dr. Cooper and his colleagues used his test along with a battery of other test to describe the physiological characteristics of professional soccer players (Raven et al., 1976). For this study, they used players from the Dallas Tornado Soccer Club, a member of the North American Soccer League (NASL). They found the players VO2max (laboratory measured) averaged 58.4 ml/kg/min. The players also averaged 1.86 miles during the 12-minute Cooper Test. Basically, this study showed that the average professional player has a VO2max of approximately 60 ml/kg/min and can run about 2 miles run in 12 minutes.

See this is what I mean. Letsrun is delusional. Professional soccer players are around 16-17 minutes (give or take 2 minutes on each side). Add 2-3 minutes onto those standards for female pros. Meaning the range would be 14 - 19 minutes for men and 16-22 minutes for women. Give 70% of these athletes a year and they could be sub elite middle distance runners. A few more years of training and they could probably get close to sub elite 5k/10k times.

spot on wrote:

copa mundial wrote:

I'm always amazed about the overestimation of soccer players distance running abilities. I've tested hundreds of professional players. Not the highest leaque but they are still considered professionals and have no job besides playing.

The best players I'v ever tested could run in the 18:00 min region. Considering a squad of 25-30 players, then maybe 3 would run between 18:00- 19:00, 5 between 19:00- 20:00, 10 between 20:00-21:00, and the rest including goalkeppers up to 23-24 min.

Mostly they hate distance running.

+1

Kevin Keegan England's most famous player of the 70s ran the first Great North Run in 1981. Over the years some have claimed he ran as fast as 1:15 or so. He actually ran 1:26:23 and he was one of the fittest players.

Valid point but professional players today versus the 70's or 80's in England's top flight, they're a lot fitter and faster today due to conditioning, diet and so on.

If you're talking about elite as in playing for a team in the top division in each country, then I'm sure they could.

In the British Superstars TV contests, the footballers would nearly always finish in the top two in the 800m race, running very respectable 2:00 to 2:10 times, and often even comparing well with 400m athletes.

Example : 2003 Superstars, Du'aine Ladejo 400m European and Commonwealth Champion (and Olympic relay medalist) won the 800m in 2:07. Dennis Wise, the 5ft 4 Chelsea midfielder, known for nightclub lifestyle and boozing, was just a second behind in 2:08. There is far more money involved in soccer these days and players are way more professional in their training and lifestyles. Also, far more potential track stars are snapped up by Premier league teams as kids.

Perhaps soccer fitness and speed equates a bit more to the 800m, but it's not as if these guys have excess muscle or anything, so I'm sure sub 2:10 800m athletes whose job is to essentially run 100 x sprint intervals in 90 minutes, could also break 20 minutes for the 5K.

http://www.thesuperstars.org/comp/03gbr4.html

Makes me suspect that there are probably 100 potential world class 800m runners playing in the Premier league alone.

Pointing Out the Obvious wrote:

Hayduk wrote:

I might be out of touch, but can't most people with 2 legs run a sub 20 5k?

Yes, you are out of touch.

Go to a local 5k and let me know what percentage of folks are under 20.

It should read "most people with 2 legs should be able to run a sub 20 5k?"....but they don't.

Almost all elite soccer players will run a sub 20 5km if not immediately then with a little prep.

In Australia, the AFL players are big guys and they all run sub 20. They are given specific time trials times to meet.

The smallest guys are midfielders and Kane Cornes (183cm/81kg) has a 3km PB sub 9:15.

Fastest known AFL time around the TAN track in Melbourne, 3.82km with a massive 500m hill is 12:40. For comparison, Craig Mottram ran low 10 min.

Now here is another thing, the following are the standards that AFL umpires must meet:

"Field umpires must run 4km in a time of 14:35mins or better, 5 x 1km at an average of 3:25 mins or better per 1km with a 6min break in between each 1km run, and 10 x 80m at an average of 13 seconds or better with 25 seconds recovery between each 80m sprint.

Boundary umpires must run 10km in 39:00 mins or better, 4km in 14:10mins or better, and 5 x 1km at an average of 3:25mins or better with a 3 minute recovery between each 1km.

Goal umpires must run 4km in a time of 18:30 mins or better, must obtain Level 10 or higher in the beep test and average a time of 25 seconds or better over 3 runs in an agility test."

Most of Letsrun won't even qualify as fast enough to umpire AFL, let alone be fit enough for elite soccer

cheers

copa mundial wrote:

I'm always amazed about the overestimation of soccer players distance running abilities. I've tested hundreds of professional players. Not the highest leaque but they are still considered professionals and have no job besides playing.

The best players I'v ever tested could run in the 18:00 min region. Considering a squad of 25-30 players, then maybe 3 would run between 18:00- 19:00, 5 between 19:00- 20:00, 10 between 20:00-21:00, and the rest including goalkeppers up to 23-24 min.

Mostly they hate distance running.

For a professional male athlete that is pathetic.

If you are talking about women those times would be about right.

I am a guy (not pro but pretty good), I run 12.3 for 100m which isn’t the fastest on my team and can break 20 pretty easily on a tempo run as can most guys I train with.

Bad Wigins wrote:

They can't even stay on their feet for 20 minutes, how are they gonna run a 5k?

POTD - well played.

I’d like to see them run a 5k while dribbling a football. Wonder what the winning time would be

I played at a semi pro level or if it had existed at that time an MLS level. I was extremely speedy. I averaged almost 2 goals per game. So maybe I can clear this up. 20 minutes is a joke for an elite athlete. For elite soccer players 18 would be a given. So here are my numbers.

5'5" 152 lbs

Squat 560 lbs

Bench 245 lbs

100m 10.9s (Ronaldo runs 10.8)

400m 48s

1500m 3:48 (10s shy of the Olympic cut)

5k. 14:30

10k. 32:30

Shot speed 75mph from stand still (Ronaldo is 82)

Vertical leap 33"

I was extremely speedy similar to Bale. But when it comes to elite players, they are much faster than you think. It's what makes them elite. There may be some guys out there today who could go below 14 but I doubt it. It just takes to much muscle to play the game to go much faster over a 5k distance. Most forward players are probably capable of sub 16. I would be surprised if the whole team didn't go sub 18.

I doubt many of them could break 19, they're sprinters and only really cover about 10k in a 90 minute match.

They're obviously fit but there's no way any of them are just going to rock a sub 16 or 17 minute 5k.

The thread title says Elite, so presumably top european league quality, Premier League etc?

In that case no doubt whatsoever! The vast majority of outfield players would easily go under 20. I have little doubt that your average college team time would be below 20, and we're talking about some of the best trained athletes the world has ever seen! The general conditioning, strength training, speed, and aerobic work these guys do, combined with low body weight, makes sub-20 a given for the majority. I doubt many of them would go lower than 16, but I'm sure there would be more players under 19 than under 20. For these players, 6:2x running speed is nothing, and to hold it for 20 minutes? Easy!

I assume that is free weight squat results. If your squat results are all the way down, no half squat, you squat like a N.F.L. athlete, greater than average D-1 Am. football player. You bench press like a 3rd string high school wide receiver. Interesting. Soccer players from being around them (my sister was a D-1 soccer player and I had T&F teammates who played soccer) tend to come closest to T&F athletes, 200m to 800m, not 5000m.

People who say soccer players are just sprinters don't know nothing about soccer lol..

My local team (top 3 regionally), from U15 to U17 are required to do an XC race every year.

Every year, at least one of the team place top 12-15 in the race, and all the others finish in the top 40 (out of 80-90).

I would say, everyone except the goalkeepers can rub sub 19:30min.

And the best ones can run sub 18:30min.

And they're 15-18 yo.

You can probably shave off at least 1 minute for the senior elites.

So sub 18:30min for most of them. And sub 17:30min for the best ones.

Roonaldo wrote:

I watch a lot of English Premier League Soccer and was wondering....These guys are obviously in great overall shape and run a lot in training and games. Could the average elite player easily knock out a sub-20 5k? Faster?

Yeah they probably could. It's all weight dependent. Soccer players are really light.. In the 110 to 179 range for the most part. Would probably be really easy for them. I would say most of them could easily run under 18:44 on their first try.